iHalfblood
by EagleCodex
Summary: Ryan Lee is pale, skinny, dark haired and from Beverly Hills. Wait, aren't Hollywood kids supposed to be tan? Not if you spend most of your time inside with four computers whirring away. So what happens when Ryan turns out to be a son of...WHAT? R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey readers! It's MEH again, Eagle! I'm back with another fic, and this one is a OC placed 1 year (more or less) after the events of TLO. So, read on and enjoy! Please comment, it would MAKE my day!**

**Disclaimer: The _Hollywood Architecture Museum _is NOT real. I made it up. Ryan, Mona, Michelle, Dad and all others not in the books are my own characters, all others belong to Rick Riordan. I am not him, so quit asking for my autograph. (lol)**

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_Chapter 1: _I actually listen to my step-mom

I spun my chair to the big Mac hooked up to my music software. It was set to let me pick a mood and it would give me a song. It was programmed to over a 100 different moods. (Did you know it registers "High" and "Mash Potatoes" as a mood? Don't ask.) I though for a while. How do you put a "…whatever" mood into words?

"Uh, 'Random'." I told it. (Voice commands are totally in, by the way.) Something Beatles came on. I squinted at the screen. "Octopus Garden". When I say random, I mean a random song from the library, not a literally "Random" song. I paused the music.

"Note to self: fix that." I told the room at large.

"This note recorded at 10:50 am, July 14th." Said the computerized voice coming from my note-taking program. I had just turned on the Internet when someone barged in. "Note to self: Fix locks." I muttered under my breath.

"Good morning, Ryan!" she said with a cheeriness that made me want to gag. She ruffled my hair. I sighed and flattened it again.

"Now where am I supposed put this? You ought to clear out all these computers and disks!" she said loudly, clutching a tray full with eggs, hash browns, OJ and pancakes. "I had Mona make this for you, but I though I'd bring it up myself." she grinned when she saw me looking at it. Then she put it on my bed. I noticed her pink tank top and black yoga pants.

"Well. I'm off to the gym, okay?" Yes. I was well aware of her abs and tanned arms. "You should get outside, Ry! We live in the Golden state, and you spend all your time indoors on the computer!" she grinned a very white grin again and left the room. Go outside? Are you kidding? It's the Dog Days! In California. In JULY. I flipped the screen to the security cameras I had hooked up, looking at the one pointed at the marble foyer. I saw her cheery blonde head grab her yoga mat and come out the door.

Then I slid over to the intercom in my room, and pressed the button.

"Don't let her do that again." I said flatly into it.

"Well, so-ree, Ryan!" said Mona, our wickedly good Spanish cook. "What was I supposed to do? Say no?" she paused. "Okay, I don't like her either, but we should try to deal with her, _si?_ Be nice."

"Okay." I said, sighing and turning it off. I picked at my breakfast, and ended up just nibbling some toast and eating a hard-boiled egg.

Why did Dad even remarry anyway? I asked myself as I shuffled to the bathroom, still in my pajamas. This question was asked every day, anyway. So I took a shower.

When I came out, I toweled off and moved over to the big mirror in my even huger bathroom. My reflection was not really too promising. My body was skinny and very pale, even at 16, from not playing any sports. I hate sports. I don't even like spending time outside too much.

There were slight dark spots under my gray eyes from staying up too late. My teeth were, mercifully, straight from braces at 13. My black hair stuck up in weird little spikes from drying it, and there was a bristle or two on my chin. I do look pretty corpse like, I thought. Maybe Michelle is right in telling me to go get a tan. If she's ever right.

I went back to my room to change, thinking about it. The time before she came into our life. My Dad, his mom was an immigrant from China. He's this huge special effects guy in Hollywood. Before her, we ate cereal for dinner and he walked around with his shirt untucked in pajamas when he got home from work. We played video games, and were big on techno-pimping our whole house. All the computers, they're gifts from him. I have 4 in my room.

Then came Michelle. She's a perky blonde woman, Beverly Hills born and raised, and works for some entertainment TV as a correspondent. She's interview all these celebrities. It might be cool, if, you know, I was a 14-year-old girl. But I'm not. I'm just a 16-year-old computer nerd. Minus the glasses. (Laser eye surgery)

Now my Dad makes us eat dinner in the dining room as a "family" and wears actual work clothes. No more video games and cereal for him.

She's not even, well, never mind. I'm not the perfect prep jock kid she was probably hoping for. I pulled out cargo shorts, sneakers and a dark blue tee shirt from my closet. My usual clothing. I buy the same thing every season, even in winter. I may be a nerd, but I don't wear checkered shirts and mom jeans. My clothes aren't from Target either. We're not poor. I have to admit, we're rich. I mean, I go to private school and we have a huge house in Beverly Hills. I don't think I appreciate it enough, though. I mean, take away the huge room and pool and yard and expensive clothes and I would still function like a regular unpopular teenager. Where I live, good stuff doesn't make you popular. Because everyone else has the _same _stuff.

I though about what I should do today. I sat down at my computer, thinking maybe I'd visit the city. The computer compiled a list of visatable places. I scrolled through the results. _Hollywood Architecture Museum. _In biking distance. I decided on it and printed the address, sticking it in my back pocket.

"Mona!" I said, ducking into the kitchen. "I'm going into the city, okay?" I said. She came out of the pantry and gave me a surprised look. I know, I know, it had been a long time since I went out anywhere.

"You'll take a taxi?" she asked.

"No, I think I'll bike." I replied. So much for having a license.

"Bike. Oh, ok." Her eyebrows went up a little for a second. "Don't forget your cellphone!" she said as I left.

"Yeah yeah yeah." I said to myself, remembering not to do that. Weird things happen when I use my phone. Like this one time I was walking around the beach, and called my dad. Then this huge, I'm talking head as big as mine, snake, jumped at me. So I ran. Fast. I never told anyone about it. I don't need anyone thinking I'm geeky, weird _and _crazy.

So I rolled my blue bike out of the garage, hoping I hadn't forgotten how to ride it. But turns out it's true, I guess, that you never forget how to ride a bike. The heat was blistering, but I still managed to get a good time in.

I passed palm trees and limousines, mansions and perfectly manicured lawns. I rode faster, willing to get out of the dreary suburbanity of it all. Finally I made it to the city.

Beverly Hills is a glamorous city, famous for it's shopping, nice weather and celebrities. So riding a bike stuck out like a sore thumb. Everyone _stared._ Any kid my age worth his parents cash around here would be either driving an expensive car, or have their own driver. I have neither, and I was beginning to remember why I didn't go into the city too often.

Finally I made it there. The museum was a plain old columned façade. I locked my bike; even at the chance of anyone here stealing it was about nil. Then I proceeded inside.

The air conditioning was nice on my sweaty, erg, everything. There were a lot of people milling around inside. I walked into the first exhibit to my left, which turned out to be about green building in the area.

I was just finished reading about green roofs when I turned around and saw _them._


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey! Second chapter up! How do you like my first fight scene...? And by the way, it practically SCREAMS who Ryan's god parent is in this chapter. :D Read and Review as always...**

**Disclaimer: Still not Rick Riordan. **

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_Chapter 2- _Sinister Jump Rope

_"They"_ were a couple, looking at a cross section of a building. The guy was tall, with dark hair and sea green eyes. He looked familiar. Really familiar, but older. I just couldn't place him in all the memories stored in my (fertile and large) brain.

The girl was blonde and tan, and extremely pretty. Her eyes were the most striking, they were a stormy gray. Exactly like mine. I just couldn't explain it, but I felt some sort of weird connection to her. And I had never seen her before. I saw the boy put a hand on her lower back. Oh well. I watched them for a while, trying to place this. Was it de ja vu? No.

I shook my head and began to head outside, to try to get some fresh air, when I heard screams from the next room. So the genius I was, I ran in there. What I saw there made me want to scream. And run.

It was an enormous serpent, surrounded by pieces of broken glass where it had apparently broken through the window. And it was terrifying. The things head was the size of a truck wheel, long and green with glowing red eyes and fangs dripping with green...venom? There were huge red spikes protruding from its back. And it seemed miles long.

Everyone had run from the room and the museum alarms went off.

"I...am Serafeim! Bringer...of...fear! I...smell...HALFBLOOD!" it hissed. It HISSED. The thing talked. The thing. It was real, right there, I could tell by the fact it was breaking things with its tail. I was paralyzed with fear and disbelief.

"Oh my gods..." said someone. I saw the couple, the strangely familiar ones run in. The girl had drawn a knife. The guy was uncapping a pen. From it, protruded a long glowing blade. A pen. Into a sword. I was brought back to Earth by the sound of a crash, and saw the thing had shot spikes out of its back. They flew over our heads and stuck in the wall, dripping with poison and dissolving the paint.

"What is that thing?" I yelled, running from its tail.

"You can see it?" The guy looked bewildered.

"Well, its shooting spikes out of its back! Of course I can see it! Who can't!" I answered.

"Here!" said the girl. She was pulling sheets of metal from a display about building materials. "Stay here, you!" she threw me a piece.

"Okay." I said, shakily. Did these people think we were going to try to fight it or something? I heard the crash of the pull down door-fences of the museum security and knew I couldn't escape now. And we were trapped in the room with the serpent.

The girl ran around the thing, covering herself with the makeshift shield to avoid the spikes. She was running towards the things tail. Suddenly, it swung. The girl, with amazing reflexes, jumped over it. And it swung back. She jumped again. And again. It was like jumping rope. Jumping sinister, spiked and scaly rope. Same difference.

"A little help, Percy!" She shrieked, jumping again. This time, she sliced the air, but missed. I just stood there, covering myself with the shield, terrified. The snake snarled and hissed crazily.

"I'm working on it!" he replied, running the other way. The snake pounded the ground with its body, cracking it. The guy sliced the air, missed, and sliced again. This time, he made a cut in the thing. It seemed to make it angrier.

Now girl sliced again, and she cut off the tail. It came off, and the tail was still writing. There was golden dust leaking from the back of it. Then the boy stabbed the body of the great serpent, and it began to dissolve into a golden dust.

"You...will...pay..." It hissed before disappearing. I dropped my shield with a clang.

"Glad I knew how to jump rope." Said the girl, scraping green liquid off her blade on the windowsill.

"How it got here was the question. Did it smell us, or something?" the boy gave her a quizzical look. The girl looked at me.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah." I said, winded. "Just never seen a huge serpent come in and talk, but otherwise peachy."

"Never? You've never seen anything like that?"

"Well, no, um, I've, uh, seen some _stuff._ Like this one time I was using my phone and this _thing _jumped me. And, well, there was that one time, I mean, I didn't know huge deformed _moose _liked Cheetos, but, uh, it was too late then." I shudder at all bad encounters I've had with, well, stuff like this. This is part of the reason I never leave the house.

"Really..." said the boy, rubbing his chin. "Well, I'm Percy Jackson. From New York City. And that's Annabeth Chase." He shook my hand. His grip was pretty strong, you know, to mine.

"Um, hi. I'm Ryan Lee. From Beverly Hills." Lame.

"Okay guys, we should get out of here, you know..." Annabeth said. So we left the makeshift shields and escaped out the window. It was hot outside, no longer the nice air of this morning.

"Urgh." I said. "You guys wanna come to my place, maybe to explain something?" And so they did.

I left my bike in the garage and led them up the stone steps to my house. They gawked at its size. Right. New Yorkers are used to lofts and stuff. Gotta remember they're from out of town. I unlocked the door and tossed my key on the front table.

"Mona! I'm home, and I brought some friends!" I called through the big house. Mona was in the living room, scrubbing the huge mirror with Windex.

"Oh good, Ryan." She glanced at me. "Did you hear? There was a pipe burst at the Architecture Museum? You weren't near there were you?"

"No." I lied.

"Good. Would you me to bring you and your _amigos _some drinks upstairs?"

"Um, anything." I said quietly. She nodded. "C'mon." I said, leading them up the main staircase. They kept looking around like this was the first time they'd seen a big house. All right then. I led them to my room.

"Uh, sit anywhere, I guess." I said. They sat on the brown couch. I sat down at my big computer.

"You have a lot of computers!" said Percy, noticing them for the first time.

"Just four." I said lamely. Mona came in and dropped off the tray, which had cans of three different sodas, water and juice. I took water, but they didn't touch it.

"Maybe I should call my dad about this…" I started, drinking from the bottle.

"What about your mom?" Percy blurted out again. Annabeth elbowed him, and pretty hard it looked like. "Sorry." He mumbled looking down.

"She, she's not, well." I shuffled for words lamely. "That woman in the photos in the hall, um, that's my step mom. Michelle. I don't, I…" I trailed off, clutching my fists, feeling sad.

"I know how you feel." Said Annabeth softly. I looked up.

"You do?"

"Yeah." She scratched her head. "My dad got remarried too." I smiled a little. Suddenly, there was a clap of thunder, and it began to rain. And hard. I got up and looked out the window.

"Wow." I said, looking up and down into the gray clouds. "It hasn't rained in ages here." I turned around, and could see the two looking at each other worriedly. "What?" I asked, sitting down on my computer chair. "It'll be over in a little."

"It's not that, it's just…" Annabeth twirled a lock of hair around her finger.

"Does this have something to do with that….thing we saw today?" I asked slowly, clutching the bottle hard.

"Yeah." Percy said, sighing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's Chapter 3. And about the whole claimed-by-13 rule thing, it doesn't exist in this story.**

**Disclaimer- I am currently funding a cloning project, but at the moment, sadly I am not Rick Riordan.**

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_Chapter 3- _More like Demi-geek!

"Yeah." Percy said, sighing.

"So I really am crazy..." I said under my breath, leaning back in my chair.

"Not quite." He said.

"Okay, listen up closely. Your life is about to take an interesting turn." Annabeth announced, leaning foreword on her elbows.

"..."

I closed my mouth for the fiftieth time.

"I always knew there was something wrong with me." I concluded, spinning my chair one. So I was half god. Half. God. Part. GOD. And I was supposed to go to some camp...?

"So what am I supposed to tell my dad? He won't just let me go to some random camp with two strangers of questionable sanity." I said halfheartedly. Annabeth pursed her lips, slightly annoyed because I had just questioned her sanity.

"I think he'll know." Percy said.

Whoops. I hadn't thought of that one. He would know. I mean, if you, um, too gross to think about. I didn't know much about my mom; Dad never said much about her. And I never asked. It was just one of those things that we never talked about. I chose my words carefully.

"Well, he doesn't get home until like 5 on most days." I checked my watch. "Its about three. I guess you guys could just hang out here until then..." I suggested.

"That's a good idea. How about calling him?" Annabeth asked.

"Can't. He's on a set, and you can't use a cell phone inside the specials FX buildings. Something about screwing up the system of something... I don't know."

"Your dad works on a set? Like, a Hollywood movie set?" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Yeah. He's an FX producer."

"What movies has he done?"

"Well, he worked on the Terminators. And Lord of the Rings... and I think the Harry Potters."

"Do you go to premiers and stuff?" Percy asked interestedly.

"Um, no. My dad does, by I don't." I mean look at me! I wasn't the Hollywood premiere type.

"Oh."

Now I was faced with a problem. How do you entertain two people you just met? I didn't have much experience in the people over department. Maybe I should get them some food?

"Um, you guys hungry?" I asked awkwardly. They said yes. I decided to run down and get them some chips or something. I wasn't about to call Mona to get me some food like I usually did. I didn't want them to think I was more of a rich spoiled kid than they already did.

In the kitchen, Mona was sitting, reading a magazine. When I started opening cabinets to find a bowl and some snacks, she looked up.

"Ryan, do you need something?" she asked in her funny accent.

"Um, yeah, I'm getting snacks for Percy and Annabeth, those people who came in." I said. If it was any indication about how often this happens, she looked even more surprised. She got up.

"Wait here. I will get some snack for your little friends, _si_? I know where the food is." She said, and turned around and started opening cabinets.

In a few minutes, she had 3 varieties of chips and bowls of guacamole and spicy tomato dip. Sliced apples and bananas completed the offerings. She put it all on a large tray and handed it to me. I thanked her.

"They can stay for dinner! I am making lasagna tonight!" she called after me as I walked up the stairs. Obviously she was exited that I was actually interacting with people my own age.

The two looked like they were talking when I came in.

"Thanks dude, I was bushed! Hadn't had anything since lunch!" said Percy, scooping large amounts of dip onto the nachos.

Annabeth nibbled on some apples. She looked at Percy with a sort of affection, smiling at him as he stuffed his face with chips. "So...what brings you guys to Beverly Hills? I thought the camp was in New York or whatever." I said, eating some of the potato chips.

"Were here to look for more half bloods, and take them to camp. Its our jobs as senior campers." Annabeth added.

"Senior campers?"

"I've been at Camp since I was 12, but Annabeth's been there since she was 7." Percy chuckled.

"Wow." I said, sitting back. "You guys must have seen a lot." This must have been some sort of joke for them, because they burst out laughing.

"You could say that." Annabeth said, wiping her eye. "It's a really long story. I'll tell you later if you like."

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"This is the unclaimed cabin." Annabeth explained kindly, gesturing to the pretty empty cabin. It was plain old wood, different from the elaborate facades of the other cabins.

We had arrived earlier that day, just before dinner. So now, I was here to bunk. Apparently, your godparent had to claim you.

"You can have any of the open beds, just leave your stuff there to claim it. I gotta go back to my cabin, so just ask anyone here for help. Light's out at 10. G'night." And then she left. I let out a sigh and stepped in.

I took the bed next to the window. There were only three other people in the cabin with me. One was a curly haired girl, younger than me, reading a magazine. One of the others, a heavy-set boy, was already fast asleep. And the last one was a dark haired boy, sitting on his bed, polishing a knife. Welcoming company.

It was already 9:30, so I went to the bathroom to wash up and change. There were a bunch of other kids doing the same thing, talking and laughing.

When I got back to my cabin, I flopped onto my bed, thinking about the past days events and sort of wishing they didn't happen.

The camp was the weirdest place ever. The other campers ran around, doing crafts, sports, but mostly sword fighting. And the flying horses. Real. According to Annabeth, training was the most important thing for a half blood. Me, sword fighting? I hate sports. I hate them. And guess what the last delightful detail of this place is? NO COMPUTERS.

"Any idea who your godparent is, new guy?" The dark haired boy said abruptly, not looking up from his knife. I sat up.

"No." I sounded deflated.

"What's your name?" said the girl, pushing her bushy curls aside.

"Ryan Lee." Nothing else to my identity, at this point.

"I'm Monica." Said the girl, smiling a little. "I'm 13. What are you...15?"

"Close. I'm 16."

"Hoping you'll get claimed soon, Lee?" the boy said again. He sounded a little mocking.

"Yes." I said, almost rolling my eyes.

"Well, good luck with that."

"Huh?" I didn't want to get annoyed by him, but I couldn't help it.

"You might be here awhile you know. Some gods," he leaned in a little, a gleam in his eye. "well, they sort of forget about us. Some people-"

"Don't listen to Eric. He's just trying to scare you." Monica rolled her eyes.

"Ehx-cuese me, Moronica. Just telling the truth."

"Uh-huh." Another eye roll. "That over there is Owen. He sleeps a lot." She jabbed a thumb in the direction of the sleeping boy.

"Oh." I said. A conch horn sounded.

"Light's out." Monica said. I crawled under my covers half-heartedly, hearing the clatter of Eric's knife being dropped to the floor. Monica got up and flicked off the lights.

So there I was. I missed Mona's cooking. Dinner was strange; not the food, but that you had to thank the gods by putting your food in this brazier thing. I just prayed for my mom to claim me soon.

Eric's words echoed through my head. I rolled over, hearing the springs on the bed squeak. I prayed silently. _Please, whoever you are. Remember me. Remember_ _Ryan Lee. _


	4. Chapter 4

**Woah. Two updates in one day? 0_o I'm more bored than I think. Oh well...here it is! Yay, Ryan gets claimed in this one! Won't tell you who it is, 'till you read it and find out. I love you all, followers! THANKS A MILLION for the reviews, they are my main staple ^.^**

**Disclaimer: Not married. Not forty-something. Not Rick Riordan.**

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_Chapter 4- _Big (screeching) news

I shoveled bacon into my mouth at breakfast the next day, watching the other tables. Ours, the unclaimed table, was very empty compared to the others.

Every table had it's own characteristics. The Ares table, for example, was full of big sour-looking brawny kids. The Aphrodite table had a lingering smell of designer perfume, and everyone there was perfectly dressed and gorgeous. Percy's table, the Poseidon table, was empty except for him and a satyr named Grover he mentioned was his best friend. I tried to match myself with some other table, but just couldn't. I was way to pale and skinny for the Athena table, and I didn't sing or play instruments, so I wouldn't fit in with the Apollo kids.

I sure wished someone would pop out and say "Oh! There was a mistake! You're not a half-blood, you can go back home now!" No such luck. Yet.

I ate more than usual, thinking I really needed the energy for today. Annabeth said she would train with me. Like, sword fighting. Best-case scenario- I would get accidently stabbed and have to be sent home because of injury. But there was a lingering feeling demigods had a _special _way of healing.

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"Time for your lesson, then." Annabeth said. So there it was.

Annabeth helped me pick out a sword that was more or less balanced. Then she showed me technique. Let me tell you- if you think a girl with a knife isn't a threat, you better run. Annabeth was the best sword fighter I had ever met. I almost collapsed after she said I could take a break.

"You…are….killing me." I said, putting my hands on my knees and breathing hard. She just turned her blade a few times.

"You should fight Percy then." Her face turned dreamy for a second, but she dropped it. "He's faced better than I have, and he's the best swordsmen in the history of camp except maybe…." She trailed off. I didn't question it.

"I officially hate fighting." I said, standing up straight. She smirked.

"Funny. A half-blood afraid of fighting. Please."

"Give me some credit, okay? Before this I was a computer geek who never left the house. That trip to the museum? That was like, super rare for me." I picked up my blade.

"Well," she got into fighting stance. "We're going to kick the geek out of you, aren't we?" I sighed and got ready. More like Annabeth was single handedly going to do it.

About an hour later, we sat on the ground, drinking water out of cups.

"I think I'm getting a sunburn." I grumbled, looking at my arm. Annabeth glugged water.

"The camp store sells sunscreen." She said, wiping her mouth. "You're a California native, like me. Where's your tan?"

"I'm more of a 'Go-inside-stay-inside' kind of person."

"Good trait for a demigod."

"That's the first thing _I _thought." I concluded, stating the obvious. Annabeth chuckled. We both stood.

"Okay, I gotta go to Chiron. You're on your own." She winked, and left, pocketing her knife. I groaned, feeling my aching shoulders. What a day. What great, fantastic, amazing, out of this world day.

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Dinner was okay, I guess. I still felt gloomy about missing Mona and Dad. And okay, maybe I did miss Michelle and her cheeriness a little. Make that a molecule-esque amount. Chiron got up and clapped his hooves together at the end of dinner.

"I would just like to announce the next Capture the Flag is scheduled for Friday. The Athena cabin currently holds the laurels." There was a bunch of cheers from the Athena table, some polite clapping, but mostly boo's from other tables, especially the Ares table.

"There is no sing along tonight, so it is free time until lights out. Remember-" he looked pointedly at the Ares table. "Lights out at 10:00pm sharp! Dismissed!"

Everyone stormed from the mess hall, chattering probably excited about his or her free time. I heard the Apollo cabin was having a hunt. Count me out. I kicked the ground a few times, then sat down on the marble corner of the mess hall, sighing at the sky. I felt so out of place here. So out of place. I pulled a switchblade out of my pocket and began to whittle the nearest stick I saw, out of utter boredom.

After a while, I decided to take a walk around the dark woods. So I began to walk on the skirts of the trees, which were huge and towered over me. Living in California, I had almost never seen a woodland forest like this one. It would be scary, the tall trees and bushes looking like they all hid some monster behind them. But it felt serene. Nice.

Then, there was a sound I had not heard in the wild before. Sort of like a series of low hoots. I recognized it from hearing it in clips online. Owl call. I looked up into the trees. There it was, the glow of huge eyes. It was an owl. A small one, maybe the size of a small football. It was reddish and brown. I think it was a screech owl.

It flew down to a lower branch. I swear, I swear it looked exactly at me. It turned its head and hooted again.

This was a crazy notion, but I was willing to believe it.

"You'll stay there, right?" I told it, feeling sort of stupid but firm on my idea. The owl turned its head. Did that mean yes? I gave it a final look and ran off.

"I swear! It wants to tell me something!" I said, running towards the spot I saw it first. Percy and his satyr friend Grover were at my heels.

"Highly possible." Grover puffed, his little curls shaking everywhere. I pulled my zipper higher. It was hot in the day here, but pretty chilly at night. I stopped at the spot, scanning the trees. Surely, it was still there.

"There!" I said, pointing. The owl took off and flew down, and without notice, landed on my outstretched arm. I held it still, feeling the birds weight and its claws digging into my sweater. It looked at us and hooted again.

"Oh!" Grover exclaimed. The owl nipped my fingers, and with an "Ow!" from me, it flew off, into the dark trees.

"Well?" Percy looked at him expectantly. I rubbed my fingers. Grover looked at me curiously.

"That owl was a courier from Athena." He looked into the trees, than back at me. "It said this exactly: 'Prepare, my son.'" He smiled at me.

I just stood there mouth slightly agape.

"I've been claimed..." I murmured.

"Annabeth'll be pleased." Percy concluded, grinning.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thanks to my lovely reviewriers- TheGodArgosus, CrazyNerdyFangirl, Orochi-Ne, Noell isthedaughterofApollo, ChAos MioRe, Greek Gods, and Moonglacier! Thank you thank you thank you! To answer some questions: Orochi-Ne, if you think a future chapter is bad, then CC it! But, I think you've liked my chapters so far ;). You all guessed right, it was Athena! Cookies for you!**

**And to this chapeter numero cinquo- Major writers block, but I did it! (more or less.) This story is officially a Romance/Humor! (sorry to you guys who don't like that)**

**Disclaimer- Is Rick Riordan this awesome? Well, I guess he is but...I'm still not him!**

**Not my best work (poo) but like I said, major bout of writers block and I was itching to post it already.**

**Enjoi...**

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_Chapter 5-_ Sadness and stupidity get CRUSHED

The inside of the Athena cabin was the closest thing to what I liked. There were a ton of books, good for doing research, since there were so conveniently no databases around here. Ahem.

Most of my cabin mates were blonde. And sporty looking, and tan. Like I needed reminding of my old days. But turns out I fit in better than I imagined. They were funny, and very intelligent people. Annabeth was working on a plan for Capture the Flag on Friday. Good. I liked plans. They were so orderly, though out and easy.

So when I fell asleep, I had a feeling like I was more home here then anywhere else in this camp. I was happy.

The next month was a blur to me. I trained. I trained a lot. Almost every day. There were aches and pains but I got stronger. Also, I got a tan. I wasn't white as a ghost anymore.

I also tried everything there was to do. The flying horses, they're fun. The climbing wall, well, honestly dangerous. Archery, disastrous. I have awful aim. The Athena cabin, we were all very organized. So we never got less than a 4/5 on the cabin inspection.

I still missed my family a lot though. And yes, I was bored a lot, wishing I had my computer. On computers, you can change the font and text size so you can read anything easily, even with dyslexia. All the books, even though I hungered for more and more knowledge, made my head hurt.

Then there were the cryptic dreams; they came every once in awhile. In one dream, I was running through this burning forest. Just running. Creepy, isn't it? One time, all I could remember was this golden haired woman being angry about something to me, but I couldn't hear her voice, and we stood on this ground covered in blacks stuff. There were others, but I just couldn't remember them. They were about to change a lot of things.

In the morning, there was a thump on the doorstep. A girl named Caitlin went outside and carried in a huge stack of newspapers.

"What's all this?" I asked, lacing up my sneakers. I never noticed them bringing in newspapers. Guess I left too early to see.

"Athena knows all the news." She said, flipping through the Wall Street Journal. I picked up a USA Today

"_Angeles National Forest suffers string of small fires" _

"Whoa..." I said. Angeles was an hour or two from my house. I pulled that sheet away from the others in the paper.

_Angeles National Forest, located in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles County California, and close to the city of Los Angeles, has suffered a small string of mysterious fires. They have been taken care of, but local firefighters are perplexed. "It's not a rogue camp fire, because we haven't seen any of that. No one camps out here, where the fires started." Says Chief Jason Arnolds, of the Los Angeles County fire department. No evidence of arson has been uncovered. Authorities blame freak lightning strikes in the park._

The article went on to talk about famous fire in the United States. I dropped the paper on the desk.

Freak lightning? Obscure. And was it arson? I really hoped not. Being a new halfblood, I became suspicious.

"Find anything interesting?" Caitlin asked.

"Well, yeah." I pointed to the picture of smoke rising from a bunch of tall, charred trees. "This is right near my house. And they say freak lightning, no arson."

"That's suspicious." Annabeth said from behind us.

"Yeah. My first guess was going to be-"

"Monsters." Annabeth finished the sentence. "Yeah. Hm, well, we'll keep out eye on this. Caitlin gave the paper one more weird look and left the cabin.

"Wait." I sat down on my bed, rubbing my temples. "Where have I seen this...?" Annabeth leaned against the wall, looking at me. I could tell she was thinking.

I knew I had seen this before. Back at home? In a book? I racked my (huge and glorious) brain for it.

"I got it!" I said, sitting up. "It was, oh, uh, never mind."

"Tell me!" Annabeth pressed. I paused.

"It's not logical, but okay. It was a dream. A few dreams I've been having. But dreams are just your sub-conscious mind, I know that." I ended slowly, as her expression changed from puzzled to intrigued.

"No, you don't understand. Halfblood-"

"Lemme guess: Halfblood dreams are _different._"

"Bingo."

"Great." I sighed and got up, pacing.

"Tell me about your dreams." Annabeth prodded. "This is good, or bad, um..." she trailed off.

"Well," I began. "In one of them, I'm running through this forest. On fire. That's square in face.

"Woah." Annabeth said. I suddenly felt really queasy.

"I need some air." I said, grabbing the paper and running out. I ran all the way to the beach, sitting down on a rock, completely out of breath. I suck at running.

It was sunny, like every day here. I rubbed my face. Sometimes I wished there would be less sun around here.

I remembered the words of Michelle what felt like ages ago.

_You should get outside, Ry!_

I am outside. And I want back in.

* * *

I stood behind a tree, waiting for _something _to happen. Capture the Flag is fun, because the Athena cabin gets to plan a lot. We have great strategies. But the un-fun thing is standing in the middle of the dark woods, not getting to really contribute. But whatever.

So I stood. There were a lot of noises in the woods, the whispering of the trees, animal calls, and sometimes the distant howling of something not quiet animal, not quite human. I knew there was monsters out here, so the sound I heard next shouldn't have scared me.

The crack of a twig breaking. I gripped my sword a little harder and stepped a little out of the cover of the tree, squinting into the distance. I couldn't see anything. Then, the loud hoot of an owl sounded behind me. I spun around, then suddenly I was on the ground, the top of my arm searing in pain. I realized someone had hit me with his or her sword.

"Ow." I groaned, dropping my weapon.

"Oh my gods!" said a female voice. "I though you were from Ares!" I dragged myself up a little, my arm still screaming in pain. I touched it gingerly.

"Crap." I said, raising my fingers to the moonlight and seeing glistening blood there.

"Great, okay, um, you should take off your chest plate." Said the girl, worried.

"Okay." I groaned. She helped me unclasp the shoulder straps. I pulled back my shirt looked at the damage. There was a gash, starting at my collarbone and stopping at my left shoulder, maybe two inches long. Good thing I was a righty.

"Just a scratch." I said, shaking my head and letting my shirt slide back into place. A stain of blood immediately blossomed when it was back in place.

"Are you sure you'll be okay? I'm really sorry!" said the girl. I looked at her. She had reddish brown hair in a high ponytail, and a few freckles on her nose.

"I'm Katie Gardener. Demeter." She continued, helping get up and put my armor back on. I was taller than her.

"Ryan Lee. Athena." I said, dusting off my pants. Embarrassing, getting cut up by a girl. Not that I undermined girls or anything, but, you know. And I realized she was extremely pretty. There was a conch horn, signaling the end of a game.

"C'mon." I said, smiling. I didn't really mind my shoulder anymore.

We were on the same team, and we won. We returned to jubilee at the hill. I got fixed up there.

"Alright!" Chiron said, clapping his hands. "Congratulations to the winning team. So now, goodnight! Dismissed!"

"Okay, well, sorry again about the whole thing..." Katie said, hitching her helmet under her arm.

"It's okay. See you later, then." She smiled and left, heading for the plant covered Demeter cabin.

I lazily went to my own cabin. I just couldn't get her face out of my head. This was not a common feeling for a geek like me.

"That was a good game." Annabeth said cheerily to me as I dug around in my bag.

"Yeah. It was awesome." I said, standing up and sighing.

Love, I think the feeling is called. Yeah. Love.

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**To clear up some confusion (from my sister/beta), yes, they are the same age. Also, apparently, it was "Cheese-tacular". Sorry if it was. (thanks again, you lousy beta.)**


	6. Chapter 6

** Hello again guys. Here is Chapter 6! A shortie but a goodie! And, so some comment business: I do admit the last one was a bit rushed, sorry =[. Perhaps this will redeem it?**

** Disclaimer: Have you guys read the _Red Pyramid _yet? Another Rick Riordan creation...didn't write it so still not him.**

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_ Chapter 6- _Eric gets edgy

The events of yesterday *ahem* had caused me to forget about the distressing article in the paper that morning. So it was surprising when Caitlin called me and Annabeth over.

"Hey Ryan, Annabeth, you might want to take a look at this." She handed me the New York Times. I looked at the article in question with Annabeth reading over my shoulder.

"_More strange events at Angeles National Forest_"

_Things have been stirring at Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County. After the mysterious fires of the days past, park officials were puzzled. But this next event seems to have everyone up in arms. _

_ Rangers report the sight of large boulder displacement. Like a few boulders on the ridge of a mountain seemed to have rolled down hill. "The displacement of these rocks could be dangerous for the mountains, and may trigger landslides. We might have to close down climbing on some of the areas." Says Carol Trent, of park recreation at Angeles. The cause is currently unknown but a popular theory blames tiny tremors in the earth. No seismic activity has been recorded, however._

"Unreal." I said.

"Fishy, isn't it?" Caitlin said as she left the cabin.

"Whoa." Breathed Annabeth. "It would take some big monsters to cause both fires and, uh," she glanced at the paper in my hand. "Large boulder displacement."

"Research." I said. "Research. Damn it, why don't we have any computers here?" I muttered as I moved over to the self and began flipping through titles.

"Why do we need computers?"

"Well," I pulled a large book out and put it down with a slam. "More databases than you can count. Plus it's easier on the dyslexia."

"Um, ok." She moved for the door. "I gotta go. Good luck."

"Bye." I said, not looking up. Great. I needed Annabeth to keep me from getting distracted. I was just beginning to read about fire monsters when someone came in.

"Mind if I sit here?" they said. I turned. To my utter surprise, it was Eric, one of the other unclaimed kids.

"Yeah." I said, still surprised, settling on a stool. "Sure. Sit anywhere."

"Thanks." He said gruffly, and sat on another stool, across the room. "This is a nice cabin." He said, looking around. "You know, if you like that knowledgey kind of stuff."

"Uh, yeah. I guess." I smirked at Athena's cabin being referred to as "knowledgey".

"Monica got claimed. Owen too."

"Who?" I said curiously.

"She was Apollo and he was Hermes."

"Wow. Are you still...?" I said awkwardly.

"Unclaimed. Yeah." He pulled out his knife and began to pick dirt out of the bottom of his black sneakers. I closed my book and looked at him.

"Exactly..." I paused. "Exactly how long have you been here?" He examined the blade intently.

"About a year."

"Seriously?" I choked out.

"Yeah." I was shocked. I was claimed on my first day! To be there for a year, not knowing...wow.

"I've pretty much concluded that my godparent is, like, someone totally minor and forgot all about me. I've seen all the unclaimed's come and go, you know, all shining and hopeful that they were gonna be claimed next, doesn't really bother me too much anymore." He said, shrugging absently. I was one of those unclaimed's who'd come and go like that.

He shrugged again. "So what are you up to anyway?"

"..."

"We figure it must be some kind of huge fire breather or something." I concluded, tapping the book.

"That makes sense." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Okay, well, thanks for letting me hear about it."

"Your welcome." I said, and he grinned sleepily before pocketing the knife and dashing out.

* * *

I took a book about fire in Ancient Greece to lunch, and read it on the way out when I bumped into someone.

"Oh. Hi Ryan." It was the pretty girl from yesterday. Katie Gardener.

"Hey." I said, closing the book.

"What are you reading?" she asked and read the title upside down. "The Greeks and Fire." She smiled and gave me an unsure look. "Are you planning something?" she said a little teasingly.

"No!" I laughed a little. "No, no." I realized I would have to tell her...

"Gods..." she said, scratching her head. "What monster would do that?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out." I explained, noticing her eyes were a really pretty shade of brown. Someone yelling my name interrupted us.

"Ryan!" called a male voice.

"Right here!" I said curiously.

"Hey..." said Eric, jogging over and breathing heavily.

"Eric, this is Katie. Katie, meet Eric." She smiled.

"Hi." she said. Eric was still leaned over. I saw he was holding a paper.

"Hi." He straightened out and pushed a hand through his unruly brown hair. "Ryan, I thought about what you told me about, and I remembered this thing I stumbled on during my Greek lessons. Here. Though this might help. " He handed me a slightly crumpled piece of notebook paper. Two words were printed there, in Modern Greek. And oh yes, it changed everything.

_Γίγαντας πυρκαγιάς_

"Why did I miss this?" I asked myself. "C'mon, both of you. I have a feeling you just gave me a lead, Eric..." and we did. Because the words were like a slap-in-the-face-why-didn't-I-see-this-before clue. Two simple words.

Fire Giant.


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's chapter 7. Not my best, but you get- wait, won't spoil it ;) I'm going to New York on Friday and Saturday so probably wont have a chapter up until Sunday. Unless I can get one done in a day. We'll see... **

**Some comment things- Moonglacier- I know! I don't know where that comes from 0_o. emeraldangel527- Thanks for the CC. I'll try to fix that grammar thing, but I don't think I can do much more for the pace. I gotta be me ;) PS- Every chapter is 1000+ words.**

**Disclaimer- I'm not Richard Russell "Rick" Riordan, Jr. (that's his actual full name, LOL) **

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_Chapter 7-_ Really real

"Alright." I said, turning on a lamp and walking to the bookshelf. Eric and Katie sat at the table, watching me curiously. I picked up a heavy book (in Greek, great...) and put it on the table. It was titled "Giants of the World".

"Um, Ryan?" Katie asked as I searched the Chapters.

"Yeah?"

"Is someone going to have to... fight these things?" I paused and looked up. Her face showed a certain...almost fear.

"Don't worry about it. 'Athena always has a plan'" Eric quoted our overused mantra. She giggled.

"Right." I said and nodded, before returning to the book. "Here we go!" I flipped to the right page. We gasped at the huge illustration. It was a picture of on of the giants, the size of hill. It looked to be made of red earth, almost human like, but with trees and plants growing out of it's back and head. It breathed fire.

"Whoa." I said, before reading the first paragraph.

"_The Fotia Gigantes are a species of Giant. They live in forest, and mostly sleep, giving the appearance of a hill. Fire Giants are not intelligent, and do not wake unless provoked by an intelligent force."_

_ "_What intelligent force?" Katie asked, running a finger down the page.

"A minor." I said. "Like in the last war." She shuddered. I remembered she had lived through it.

_"Weaknesses- The Fire Giant's primary weakness is water of any kind."_

"That makes no sense. Wouldn't the firemen's hoses kill them?" I said to myself. I read further. "Oh, ok."

"_Water cannot harm the giant in its dormant form. The giants can live dormant for many, many years, causing plants to grow on their exposed areas, giving the impression of wooded hill. They can rise, and go back to their 'sleep' very quickly." _

"Okay." I searched around and scrounged up a pen and Legal pad. I began to write facts and pulled out the articles. I knew I looked like a classic Athena kid, so sue me.

"Looks like you need some time to think..." Eric said, pocketing his knife again. "I'll see you at dinner. Tell me if you find anything really important."

"He's right. Keep me posted, ok?" Katie got up. "See you."

"Bye..." I said, rubbing my temples and reading more.

* * *

"These _Gigantes _are going to destroy the forest, and all of LA if we don't do something." I pressed. Chiron and I sat on the porch of the Big House as I explained our situation to him. He rubbed his chin.

"Your evidence is overwhelmingly true. And I have been getting reports..." He sighed. "I wish we could just have some _quiet _time in this world."

"Wouldn't be a world then." I said, half to myself.

"Good point, Ryan." He smiled at me. "Alright, I'll have to give you a quest to investigate this further. You get two companions of your choice." I already knew who I was taking. "See the Oracle, I think she's at the stables now." I said a thanks and left, feeling sort of a weight on my shoulders. I was leading a _quest. _

So I walked to the stables. The only person there was a girl with fiery red hair. She was feeding one of the flying horses lettuce. I stood in the doorway.

"Uh, hi. Are you Rachel?" I asked.

"Yeah." She looked at me. "Who's asking?"

"Me. I'm Ryan Lee. I'm supposed to see you..."

"You got a quest? Wow. Nice." She nodded. Just as I was about to say "Thanks" she went rigid. Her eyes, irisless, glowed green. A cold wind blew through the room, slamming the door behind me. She began to speak in a cold, hissy sort of voice.

"_Three will travel to a home place_

_Where fire, earth and evil's the case_

_One shall use things learned and known_

_One shall grow and shall have grown_

_One shall shift and learn their fate_

_Hurry and douse before it's too late" _

Rachel leaned over heavily, holding onto the divider. She was normal now, and gasping for air.

"Woah." She said, shaking her head a little. She looked a little puzzled. "Did I just give you a prophecy?"

"I think so." I said, repeating it in my head. "Thanks Rachel." I said.

"Good luck with your quest!" she called as I left. I jogged up to the Big House and recounted the prophecy to Chiron.

"Hm." He said.

"I get the first two lines, I mean, it is in LA, my hometown, and these giants breath fire. Also, they have to be led by _someone _evil." I said, thinking.

"Good point. I assume the next three refer to you and your quest mates." He said. I couldn't contemplate eye or ear of this. What did this have to do with me? Or _them_?

"_Hurry and douse before it's to late..." _I recounted to myself.

"Have you chose who you wish to take with you?" I told him. "Very well. I shall, ah, figure out the details before the end of the day. I would suggest you let your companions know about this."

"Thanks, Chiron." I sighed gratefully, and ran down to my cabin.

* * *

"So. Guys." I said, wringing my hands on the table in front of me. "I talked to Chiron."

"So...?" Eric said, prodding me along.

"I-got-a-quest-and-I-want-you-guys-to-come-along." I blustered out in one breath.

"What?" Katie looked puzzled.

"I got a quest and I want you guys to come with me."I got up and began to pace. "I know it's going to be dangerous. But that's why I picked you guys. I mean, Katie, how many people can wrestle down huge monsters with plants?" She blushed. "And Eric, I suck at sword fighting. I need someone really good." So I stopped and observed my friends. They looked at me.

"I better sharpen my knife..." Eric breathed.

"So you'll do it?" I asked hopefully.

"Duh. I need some adventure to shake this up."

"I'll go too, Ryan." Katie piped in softly. I sighed in relief.

"You guys have no idea how grateful I am right now." I was so happy. I had a quest and exactly the right people to help me. "Okay then. Time to-"

"Make a plan." We all said at the same time, and burst out laughing.

By the time of dinner, word got around that I had a quest. People looked at me weird. I got a few "good luck's" and a couple "_he _got a quest's?". Annabeth began to babble about strategy.

When I went to the brazier, I prayed to the gods for good luck. _This is really real. _I though as I returned to my table. _This is what a demigod is supposed to do. _


	8. Chapter 8

**WOAH! I changed the whole _substance _of this chapter like a billion times! Well, here you go, eat it up :) And, please review! I've gotten so many new reviews recently! **

**Disclaimer- Lamia is a real myth (Wikipedia her if you want), but the skink hole portal thing is something I made up. I am not Rick Riordan because I have never been to or visited Texas or Nevada or wherever he lives. **

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_Chapter 8- _These children get devoured

Katie put a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry." She said as we waited to get on the plane. I was very aware of her fingers on my shoulder.

"Okay. Okay, I'm just...just feel like a monster is going to pop out at any second." I explained. Eric smirked. I shook my head to clear it. Just a five-hour plane ride and we're back in _my _city.

We just had one backpack each, nothing extra. Eric convinced me not to cram it with books. The whole time before, I was really jittery.

A lot of it was because of the headlines. I glanced in at them in the News store at the terminal, and they were chilling. More fires, more mess. Not convincing, eh?

So now we settled into our seats on the plane. Eric fell asleep as soon as the plane took off. I was not so lucky; I sat eyes wide open the whole time.

I got off the plane with Eric badgering me to just calm down. We made it through LAX without a hitch, so I relaxed a little when we got to the cab. First mistake.

The cab was like a normal LA cab, with worn tan seats and a meter thingy.

"Where to?" asked the cabbie. I looked forward. The cabbie was an older woman with graying, blonde hair. She was wearing a LA Dodgers baseball cap.

"Uh, Angeles National Forest." I said, sliding my backpack to my lap.

"Angeles, huh? You guys campers?"

"Nope."

"Hikers?"

"No."

"Demigods?" she continued cheerfully. I looked at Katie and Eric in horror.

"Get out of the car." Katie said quickly. I glanced in the rear view and saw the woman's eyes were glowing red.

"It's locked!" Eric said, yanking on it.

"Demigods for lunch!" said the driver, now morphing into something. Katie held out her hands. Vines began to circle around the seats, and towards the driver's door. _Click. _

"Open it!" she shrieked, and the daemon thing or whatever was driving the car screamed and began to gnash the leather seat. Eric opened the door and tumbled out, onto the Interstate 105, the Century Freeway.

Jumping out of a very fast moving car is easy in movies. It's very painful in real life. I felt myself rolling, my hands skinning, my backpack dragged along. Cars began to swerve and honk.

"Eric!" Katie shrieked, and he jumped, avoiding a messy collision with a station wagon.

"Run!" he continued. We began to sprint for the grass. It's a very wide freeway, just to let you know. I glanced back.

The thing that was perusing us was a woman, a beautiful woman, with glowing red eyes and flowing chestnut hair. She had on a bronze chest plate and a long black sheet wrapped around her legs. In puzzlement, I could see there were snakeskins in her skirt and wrapped around her arms. I knew at that moment who it was. And I began to run faster.

Cars swerved and stopped. I could hear a few sickening crashes. We made it off the highway into, well, just some grassy fields. In the middle of nowhere between the airport and downtown LA.

"It's Lamia, she's a child devouring daemon!" I said loudly to my companions. There was a large fence in front of us.

"Great. We'll have to fight her!" Eric sweared loudly. I pulled out my weapon, a sword. No shield.

"Run, still run." Katie's eyes widened in horror as the daemon came closer, pulling out a curved scythe. We sprinted down the grass between the fence and the freeway. Cars honked, but we ignored them.

"Come closer, halfbloods!" Lamia shrieked, clawing the air with her, well, talons. Eric, I could see was falling back. Limping. He must have hurt himself coming out of the car. I had to defend him. So I ran back.

Lamia was almost on him, hissing and shrieking.

"Go go go go go go!" I said to Eric, stepping behind him. Lamia slashed. My sword met hers.

"Son of Athena! I loved your grandfather!" I realized she was talking about Zeus. Right, the myth! Hera found out about Lamia's affair with Zeus and killed all her children. This drove Lamia insane, and she became a child-devouring daemon.

"So we're related." I said impulsively, blocking an attack.

"I sss-upose!" she shrieked. I saw prickly vines clawing the ground. Katie's work, obviously. They seemed to climb Lamia's legs, so she moved around a lot to keep them off her. This made for a difficult fight for both of us.

"Stupid Daughter of Demeter!" the daemon thrashed. I was getting tired. Then, I put my energy into one last stab. I caught the daemon around the legs. She began to dissolve, sending a shriek so loud I felt my eardrums going. The ground underneath me began to feel _very _weird.

"Oh n-" Katie began to say, but it turned into a scream as we the ground devoured the three of us.

We fell far and hit a soft ground. We began to slide down this earthy tunnel, screaming for our lives.

"What the hell!" Eric yelled.

"Oh gods, I tried to create a sink-hole portal, but I guess I screwed up-" she was again cut off as we fell down a sharp drop. We screamed.

The tunnel twisted and turned and I almost felt like we were rising. Then, we were back on the surface. The hole had spit us out onto the ground. I looked at my friends. We were dirty as heck, covered in earth, and scraped up from the car jumping. Eric groaned, holding his arm.

"I'll get you some ambrosia." Katie said weakly, unzipping her now filthy backpack. I stood up and looked around. It was hotter here than where we were. Much, much, much hotter. Sweat began to drip down my forehead. I did a 180.

We were in the desert. We were in the middle of nowhere with no way for getting back.

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"How are we getting back?" Eric demanded. Katie lay down, resting her head of her backpack. I did the same. The ground was this cracky scrub, with a few pitiful plants scrawling between the dried ground.

"You okay?" I asked Katie softly.

"Yeah." She said tiredly. "I'm sorry guys. I screwed us up. I meant to swallow Lamia, but I must have messed up and took us instead." She managed a weak smile. "Those things are supposed to take a lot of concentration. Guess it was too hectic. But now I-"  
"You're too drained to make another. I understand." I said gravely. She took my hand and squeezed it once.

"Thanks for saving us."

"Yeah, thanks. I was totally hanging behind. Remind me never to jump out of a car again." Eric piped in. I chuckled.

"Alright." I said, digging around in my bag. "Here." I tossed a white bottle to Eric. "Ultra SPF half-blood sunscreen. Got it at the camp store. We'll all need it badly." He opened it up. I shook Katie's shoulder. "Drink up." I handed her her canteen. "Last thing we want is to get the dehydrated and die of heat stroke." She sat up and drank it.

"Still have a plan." Eric said, smiling and rubbing sunscreen into his arm. "So, up, Ryan, where do you think we are?" he sounded tentative. I looked at Katie. She blinked.

"I just though of the closest, hottest desert here." She said. I bit my lip.

"Well, the good news is I know where we are." I said grimly. "The bad news? We're in the middle of Death Valley."

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**DUN DUN DUN! Sorry, going to New York tomorrow, so don't expect a chapter 'till Sunday (unless on a whim or something...) **


	9. Chapter 9

**My gods, guys. I've been gone for THREE FREAKING WEEKS! Or more, but whose counting? I'm sooo sorry for that, i was just at camp then camp again and I've had a few computer problems, so I couldn't write. Sorry again**

**Anyway, we last left Ryan, Katie and Eric in the middle of Death Valley! *gasp!* here is the next chapter in the adventure...:D I should have the next chapter up sometime tomorrow, it's almost done. Nice longie here for ya to sink your teeth into :)**

**Disclaimer: I made up Claret, California, but there are lots of real Old West ghost towns I researched for this. Cool, huh? Not Rick Riordan, all non book characters belong to me. NOW READ! And review...?**

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_Chapter 9-_ C for Coyote?

I gazed up at the millions of stars in the sky before looking seriously at my two quest mates. We had camped in the desert.

"So, as far as I can see, the sink-hole portal is not getting us back." I said, rubbing my thumbs together. Katie might have blushed, but I couldn't tell in dark.

"Then how are we getting out?" Eric squinted, then collapsed on his bedroll. "Guess we'll sleep on it. I'm beat."

"Ditto." Katie muttered before lying down. I sighed and lay down. I watched for constellations. Orion, Pursues, Hercules. All heroes. I hoped we could be heroes.

Or make it out of here before we let California burn to the ground.

"I think I saw that grain of sand two minutes ago." Eric said, pointing vaguely to the sand. Katie rolled her eyes. I reached for my water bottle and became extremely worried when that was my last drink.

"This is not good..." I said, looking at the bottle before putting it away. "Do you know how easy it is to get heat stroke in 100 degree weather?" We walked in silence for a while, contemplating this.

Katie broke it.

"What's this?" She pointed to a rock in the ground. It wasn't just _a_ rock. It was shaped like a cube, and stuck deep in the ground. I touched its rough top.

"C...Q." I felt the letters carved in.

"What in the world does that mean?" Katie said, puzzled.

"Well," I got up. "In the Old West, town markers would be put at the main road in town. The letters are initials of the town's name, or it's main manufacturing or something."

"Old West towns..." Eric mumbled.

"Yeah. There were a ton of gold mining and ore towns around here in the late 1800's and early 1900's. They're all ghost-" But I cut myself off, and looked at my two friends, all of us coming to the same conclusion.

So we hurried around the sand dune, and what we saw made me catch my breath.

In the small valley, there was a genuine, Old Western ghost town. There were a few buildings; all in various forms of decomposition along what I guessed was a main street.

"Whoa!" Eric said, then began to walk foreword.

"You sure it's safe?" Katie asked me quietly.

"As long as we don't go into any buildings. There's no National Park Service sign, so it's not kept up."

"You're telling me this place hasn't been touched since... whatever time a long time ago?" Eric turned around. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"Except for the animals, probably not." I walked to a big wood board, it's stand submerged in sand. I felt the words carved in, because the paint was way too faded to read.

"Claret, CA." I read aloud. "Quartz and merchant. Est. 1903. That explains the C Q. 'Claret Quartz'. There was a big trade of it back then."

"Claret... isn't that a shade of red?" Katie asked, glancing at Eric than back at me.

"Yeah, it is. But there was a lot of weird names for towns back then."

"Man, where do you learn these things?" Eric smirked, slapping his forehead. I answered his query with a scowl. He shrugged and walked down the main street. Katie and I followed.

The buildings were wooden and brick, and falling apart. Many had porches. Some even had empty plant pots on the windowsill.

"Why is it so empty?" Katie asked me.

"These towns were never a picnic to live in. People just came for the ore. After it was exhausted, they left. No reason to stay in this... hell hole." I looked inside one of the buildings that had an old style saloon door. There were still barstools and a piano inside.

"Hey! A water pump!" Eric called from around one of the buildings. I hurried foreword.

"Wait, is it clean?" Katie asked, apprehensively eyeing the pump. I walked foreword and put a hand on the hot metal of the pipe.

_Yes. _Said a small voice in my head. I recognized it as Athena, my mom's, without even knowing it.

"Yeah. It is." I tapped my head. "Athena told me."

"Good. Now help me out." Katie came and pumped the thing while he held his water bottle underneath. After a few pumps, water rushed out. "It's cold!" was Eric description.

"Interesting. An underwater well that lasted a hundred years. Definitely possible." I muttered. I was just capping my water bottle, when I heard a scream.

It was Katie's. I stuffed my bottle in my bag and drew my sword. Eric stood still, not grabbing his weapon or anything. I saw the source of the scream. A coyote, sandy colored and furry, had trotted out from behind a building.

I stood my stance, ready to fight, though I didn't see the thing as a threat. Then, two more joined it. Great.

They stopped, watching us with black eyes and pointed snouts. Eric was in front, but he hadn't drawn his weapon. Then the weirdest thing I'd ever seen happened. Well, not the weirdest, but...

The first coyote slowly walked foreword until it was barely a foot from Eric, who was still not moving. Then, it began to rub against his legs.

"What the..." I muttered, bewildered. He bent down and began to pet the thing! The other joined in the licking and nuzzling of my friend. He laughed. Katie took a few steps closer to me, giving me a weird look. I just stood frozen. The wild dogs were acting like pet Labradors!

Eric crouched and turned to us. The things went on the alert, crowding in front of him, haunches raised and ears back, growling. I sucked in my breath.

"It's okay, guys, they're friends." Eric told the animals. They relaxed a bit, but still stayed a distance from us. They lay down next to him, one closing his eyes. Eric sat down from his crouch in the rock.

Katie and me testily sat down on the edge of the porch of one of the houses, it creaking ominously.

"This is weird." I said, breaking the silence. The coyotes were dozing in the sun.

"I've always been great with dogs, but, yeah..." Eric replied. "I'm guessing this is something to do with me being a half-blood." I agreed. But, why did they go crazy with Eric, but not us? It was just plain weird.

I drank water and contemplated.

"You know what, Eric?" I said, capping my bottle. "I think we were _suppose _to come here. And, I think it has something to do with... your godly parent."

"What godly parent leads you to a ghost town and sends you coyotes?" Katie said. "It doesn't add up."

"Maybe..." I tapped my chin. "I'm speaking on a hunch here, but maybe our way out of the desert is here in Claret. Think think think..." I trailed off. Though I couldn't see it, Katie and Eric looked very confused.

"Well." I declared. "It's just about one, so we can't keep going now."

"Why not?" Eric asked.

"Hottest hours of the day. We'll wait till it gets cooler."

* * *

"Ryan, what kind is this?" Katie asked me, pointing to the reddish, round cactus near her feet. I was following her around while she identified different cactuses near the town, trying to grow them.

"Oh, right. California barrel cactus, very common." She leaned over and looked closer at it.

It was a useful skill, being able to grow cacti, then we'd have water when we'd really need it, if we cut them apart. I was just there to help identify. She gingerly picked the little thing and put it in a makeshift sack made with a sweater, which had a few different cacti inside.

"There we go." She said, looking at me. "Any ideas?"

"About the thing? Yeah, I was thinking about why this town was settled."

"Quartz, right? You said, about the mines..." she hoisted up the sack. I rubbed my temples, then suddenly, the idea came to me.

"Get Eric. I think I know where our solution is."


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys, here's Ryan's "solution"... hehe... Review!**

**Disclaimer- Not my characters except Ryan and Eric and all the frills. The rest are Rick Riordan's.**

**PS- Hmmm, nice prediction Orochi-Ne but no, none of those. Dogs are related to them but... I basically centered the town, Claret, around them. Look deep for clues... but I'm so dang secretive, aren't I :DDD **

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_ Chapter 10- _Holy flying feathers!

"This is your solution?" Eric asked, peering down the dark mineshaft. I squeezed past the mine carts at the mouth and shined my flashlight down the tunnel.

"Yep." I said.

"But I don't see anything around here. Just sand." Katie observed, feeling the rough rock walls.

"Not here." I pointed down the tunnel. "Down there."

"Are you crazy?" she practically shrieked. I shrunk away a little.

"Maybe a little." I said after a pause. "But I have a hunch there's _something _down there. I don't know about you, but I'm going to check it out." She scowled. I noticed she was cute when she was angry.

"Is it dangerous?"

"A little." I admitted. "But I'm willing to risk it." I put our backpacks in the last cart, just in case. Then, I climbed into the first one.

"You coming?" I asked. My two companions apprehensively climbed into the next two. "Okay, so, keep your heads down, otherwise, lets go." I took a deep breath and pushed off the wall. The cart line moved pretty fast, but not anything breathtaking. My flashlight provided a little light in the dark tunnels. There were torches on the wall and those wood slat things every few feet. We rode for a while, when I noticed the rough-hewn walls were gone.

"It should have ended a few feet ago..." I said to the two. The walls were now an extremely smooth stone I could see as I ran my flashlight down them. I had just crouched down when the breath was pulled from my lungs. I had been holding my flashlight over the side, and it was ripped from my hands in the speed. We were flying down a steep fall, like a roller coaster. I held on so tight I thought my fingers would fall off. I could here Katie screaming behind me.

And suddenly, the steepness petered out, and we were moving a quick pace. It was still pitch black, which wasn't pleasant.

"You guys okay?" I said loudly. Apparently so. The carts then slowed down and stopped. I could see light down the tunnel. It was completely stable. I climbed out.

"Light." Eric said. I could barely make out the two in the dim light. Katie grabbed our arms.

"What's down there? Why are the walls different?" she said quietly, but I could sense determination there.

"Don't worry about it." I went for my bag, and with some fumbling, found my sword. Eric drew his knife. Katie shivered and grabbed her sword too. We grabbed everything inside the carts and continued on.

I lead the way down the tunnel, which got smaller and smaller. Then, it opened up into a huge cavern. The walls were made of clear crystal and the ceiling was cathedral- height.

"Woah." Eric said. The weirdest thing? There seemed to be fire burning _inside_ the walls of crystal on the far side. I could see my hazy reflection in them.

"I knew there was something down there." I muttered, in shock. Eric bent down.

"Why is there a feather down here?" he asked, holding it up. I walked over and took it. It was reddish and a foot long, with dark stripes. The end was long and thick.

"Red-tailed hawk feather. Common birds around here." I said, squinting at the end. "Wait a second..." I noticed the hole at the end. "It's hollow." Katie walked over and took a closer look.

"It's not a feather." She took it. "It looks like a... whistle." She took the end, put it in her mouth and blew. The sound that it created sounded high and tinny- like when you leave a teapot on the stove and it whistles.

The feather whistle turned into cinders in Katie's hands. And all of a sudden, the glowing wall _exploded. _

We screamed and backed up to the other wall. Shards of crystal flew everywhere, but none seemed to hit us. Everything cleared, and in front of us was what I could only call a huge, flaming hawk. Its talons were the size of doors, and it's wingspan was too big to estimate. Its eyes were a golden, glowing color.

"Strangers to the Cave of Fire, state yourselves! Are you friend or foe of the Olympians?" A booming _caw_ that faded into a voice filled the cave.

"Friends!" I yelled, terrified. The thing leaned down, folding it's flaming wings, until it's eyes were level with us.

"Halfbloods! Very well, caller of the Phoenix, friend of Phoebus Apollo and Olympus, I am permitted to take you to your destination of choice!" I looked around at my friends, a little more relaxed.

"We need to go to Angeles National Forest!" I called, shifting my backpack.

"As you wish, caller." The Phoenix leaned down, as if inviting us to climb onto it's back. I nodded at Eric and Katie and moved foreword.

You'd think Phoenix feathers would be hot, due to the flames on the ends of its wings and tail, but they were smooth and cool, reds, yellows and oranges. We climbed on until we were right behind the bird's head. I sat on the edge, then Katie, then Eric. I breathed deeply, looking over at my companions. Eric looked excited, Katie slightly scared but smiling.

"Caller, are you ready?" asked the Phoenix.

"Yes." I said.

"Then on we go." The bird stretched out its huge wings, and exploded into the air, straight vertical. The crystal ceiling exploded and _we _exploded out of the desert mountain.

The bird swooped low over Claret, Eric's coyote's barking after us. The Phoenix rose up and we were flying way over the desert, high in the cloudless sky. I stopped screaming and let my heart slow down, watching the desert WAY below us.

"This. Is. So. Cool!" Eric yelled over the rush of the wind.

"Agreed." I grinned.

After just a few minutes, we were past the desert and into normal California. Cars and people were way below us, but mortal eyes are not the same. I don't think they saw us.

We flew over water and forest and city. Seeing it all from literally, a birds-eye view was just amazing.

I thought about the prophecy.

"_Three will travel to a home place/ Where fire, earth and evil's the case" _That part already made sense.

"_One shall use things learned and known"_ Learned and known. I am the brains of this operation, I thought with a smile.

"_One shall grow and shall have grown" _Grow and grown. Grow... plants? Katie, duh. _Shall have grown. _In height? I doubted it, more like grown personally or something. Guys aren't good with girls' feelings, especially nerd-guys like me. Especially nerd-guys who _acknowledge _it.

I looked over to her, her brown hair loose of its ponytail, flying behind her. She looked up from watching the ground and am I chasing? I asked myself with a sigh.

"_One shall shift and learn their fate" _Eric then. He will shift. He'll shift? Like shape-shift? I dismissed that thought. It just wasn't humanly possible.

"_Hurry and douse before it's too late" _Douse the fire. Douse the evil. Wow, it sounded worse when you though about it. And before it's too late. Before things to bad to contemplate crash around us.

"Thank you." I said, after sliding off the Phoenix. He had dropped us off somewhere in the forest, in a clearing.

"My duty if fulfilled." The bird said, it's eyes glowing. "You are at the foot of the greatest of the mountains here. A majestic place, to be sure. I sense fire near, alas. Eternal, evil fire, not like my own. Take heed, adventures. What you have already found, abilities you already have will help you. Good luck." And with that, the bird rose, engulfed in flames. The last sweep of its wing had magically made all the dirt; dust and sweat leave our bodies.

I felt clean and refreshed.

"What we already have..." Eric muttered.

"This is it." I said, "The real thing is here."

"Yeah." Katie said, a touch of anger in her voice. "And I smell trees burning."

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**Ooo! Here begins the real deal... As you can see, I made up the Phoenix, but it was a big part of Greek mythology :D**


	11. Chapter 11

**Very nice predictions readers, but it's none of those. The Artemis theory is okay, but it never mentions Eric being good at archery... it's not her. The dogs are a big part of it, and it will become pretty easy to guess soon :) I've left a few clues along the way... Anywho, here is chapter 11, two updates in one day! I'm on a roll! Thanks for all your reviews, they are amazing! **

**Disclaimer- I don't own PJO.**

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_Chapter 11- _Don't Burn, Baby, Don't Burn

So we stood there watching the tall trees, so different from the treeless, sandy climate we'd just seen. The air smelled of pine, and Katie was right, ashes and fire.

"Right." I got on one knee and began to dig around in my backpack.

"To business." Eric said, smirking. I ignored him. I pulled out a few papers, then got up.

"Okay, so the Phoenix said the greatest of the mountains, by that he means the tallest, and by that he means Mt. San Antonio." I took another breath, priding myself in knowing all these facts. "Mostly known as Mt. Baldy, it's the tallest mountain in the San Gabriel mountains, but not the tallest in South California. I thought their base would be here. I mean, big location, hard to reach, all that stuff. They probably blocked off this-" I pointed to a road on my Mt. Baldy map I had ex-d out in red "road."

"That also explains all the 'boulder displacement.'" The _gigantes_ must have blocked off all the trails and roads to keep everyone away. It's not like there's anyone here. The park is closed, the ski lift empty, it's the perfect storm. Except for the firefighters, I don't see them doing anything about them, unless they lay low while planning, getting them to think the fires have-" I was now talking more to myself then to them, but Eric cut me off.

"Okay, you can stop the Athena-kid-genius rant or whatever. I get it. Park empty, _gigantes _prancing around and playing with fire. Simple." He said grimly.

"Couldn't put it better myself." I said, now really rolling my eyes. "Now what I think we should do is check out where they are. Survey the scene." I said, carefully folding the maps and papers and putting them away in my bag.

"Can't we make camp now? It's like five." Katie said.

"Alright." I concluded. "We make camp and act tomorrow. Let's have a guard up. We switch every two hours. Guard gets my watch."

So we made camp in the clearing. We decided not to risk a fire.

"I haven't had a real meal since the plane." Eric complained.

"If you're so hungry, go rob the hiking store. There's one around the ridge. I'm sure _you'll _be able to break in easily." I answered sarcastically.

"Good idea." He concluded.

"You can't do that!" Katie said, the morals of the quest kicking in.

"I can and I will." He dug around in his bag, grabbing some things.

"What about paying?" Katie protested

"I'll leave a drachma or two on the counter. They're solid gold, aren't they?" he said as he receded into the trees, shining his flashlight ahead and carrying my map. Katie sighed.

"Rob a store, see if I care." She muttered, lying down on her bedroll. It was really dark, here. I sighed and hugged my knees. This whole thing seemed illogical. So then I did something I hadn't done in moths. I wished for a computer.

* * *

In the morning, we ate some of Eric's 'borrowed' food. Vitamin water, fruit and assorted granola. Better than our last staple, half energy bar and water.

I carefully put my apple core in a bush.

"So where's the trail?" Katie asked, looking around.

"What trail?" I asked. "There isn't one. Unless you want to walk three miles." She was quiet.

"You must have hiked here a lot." Eric observed. I stayed silent. I had never been hiking in my life. All the things I knew about it (quite a lot, actually) I had read. So we walked in the general direction of the mountain, according to my compass.

"Look." I said, pointing to a pine tree trunk. There were Greek words written there, seemingly grown into the trunk in the patterns.

"The trees nymph must have written it as a warning." I said.

"Beware of Pyrrhos, lord of the _fotia gigantes_, killer of our kind." Katie translated out loud. I realized all the pines we'd seen were nymph-less. They must have all left when the trees were burning down.

"Pyrrhos. The mastermind." Eric said, touching the words.

"Yes. Well, at least we're close." I sighed and trudged forward, hoping to be done with all the hiking soon. I was sick of it.

The next sign was fallen trees. Not burned, but knocked over. Violently, it looked like. Katie seemed sad, every once in awhile touching broken tree with a sigh. I feel into step with her.

"You alright?" I asked.

"Yeah." She mumbled, but looked up and smiled. "I'm ready to take on this Pyrrhos guy." I smiled back, knowing at least one of us was.

"See that?" Eric said in a whisper, pointing foreword. There was smoke hanging around charred trees in front of us. I could hear roars.

"Okay, stay low, the smoke stays up. And stay quiet." I said, leading the way. We walked through a place where there was once forest, but now there was ash a few inches deep everywhere. All that was left was black, gnarled tree trunks. We had to stoop low to keep from suffocating on the smoke.

Up ahead, I could see what looked like a huge fort wall made of tree trunks. Smoke rose from above it. There were roars and thumps I assumed were the _gigantes_ moving around. I would look above the wall to try to see them, but I couldn't look up without chocking on smoke. We reached right about to the wall. It was solid, but I found a sizable spot in between two tree trunks we could look through. What we saw made me want to throw up.

It looked like a huge fort inside, the tree trunk walls surrounding an area the size of a football stadium. On the side we were on, there was a large stone table, on which was a variety of meats and plants. Food, I though. For Pyrrhos? The giants didn't eat those types of things. A bunch of terrified looking satyrs were placing it all on a large tray.

"He's enslaved the satyrs of the forest!" Katie exclaimed. I scowled. Three satyrs carried slowly picked up the tray and carried it away.

And then there was the _gigantes _themselves. They were the size of a two-story house, huge and lumbering. They had a head and four appendages the color of red earth. Like the book said, they had plants growing out of their backs. The things heads were the size of a monster truck wheel, with tiny eyes and nose slits, and one huge mouth. Most of them had grass growing all over their faces. They walked around, carrying trees or eating them. Most of the giants were lying on the ground, sleeping at one end of the fort, so it looked very hilly over there. There must have been fifty of them.

I was brought out of my revive by the sound of a human voice. Well, not quite. It was loud and raspy, angry. We got our first glance of Pyrrhos.

He was pretty big, but not bigger than his giants. He had a man's body, except larger, clothed in a red and gold one-shouldered tunic, and tall Greek sandals. His hair, well, he didn't really have any on his head, the top of his head was on fire, hot, red flame, like Hades in the Hercules Disney movie. His skin looked like hot coals- glowing yellow and orange and red.

I looked at my friends and gulped. The guy looked very intimidating.

"I need my maps! WHO HAS MY MAPS?" he thundered. His fists were flaming with fire. I assumed he could throw the fire. A trembling satyr came foreword with a bunch of parchment rolls tied in gold string.

"Your h-hands, sir." The satyr stammered.

"Yes." Pyrrhos said, extinguishing the fire in his hands. "Why is everything in this world so damn flammable?" He groaned and snatched the maps from the satyr's hands.

He studied them, then spoke to the camp in general.

"This is what we've been waiting for! In three days time, during the full moon, we shall climb to the top of this, the tallest mountain!" He pointed to Mt. Baldy, looming over the camp. "We shall start the flame that will engulf these mountains! The eternal flame shall not die!" And with that, he thrust a flaming fist in the air. The _gigantes _pounded their fist against the ground, causing a lot of the wall on the far side to fall. We were still covered, luckily.

"Fools!" Pyrrhos growled. "Fix that!" Then he strode off, carrying his maps, his tunic swishing around.

"And that's our cue." I whispered. We, as quietly and as quickly as possible, moved off. The hike was quicker, since it was downhill. We stayed silent the whole time. When we hit camp, we all sat down. I looked at my watch. 3 pm. I decided to speak up.

"Hey, Eric, did that store you broke into have a computer?"

**:)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Nice guess, Orochi-Ne, but no, Eric's just a bad-boy ;) Not Hermes. Here's another chapter... awesome for you guys. Please review!**

**Disclaimer- Don't own PJO.**

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_Chapter 12__-_ The hoof problem

"We're in." Eric said, opening the door after picking the lock.

"No security system?" I asked, curious.

"Disarmed it yesterday. Just in case." He said, and walked in. I followed him, and walked past all the cases of t-shirts and boxes of energy bars to the desk. I climbed over it and sat down on the stool in front of the computer. I could hear the others coming in.

My finger hovered above the power button. I couldn't believe I had spent the last month or two without a computer. It felt weird doing this. Katie and Eric slid over the counter, so I hit it.

It was an old, chunky PC, so we waited until it did all it's power up.

"Why are we here, again?" Katie quipped, drumming her fingers against the counter.

"Research." I replied as I turned off the cashier window and powered up the Internet. I typed ".com" into the address bar.

"We have a website?" Eric asked, surprised.

"Not quite. This-" the page loaded. "Is not what it looks like." The page was just white with a typing bar. I hit "View" in the top bar, then "Text Encoding" then scrolled to "Greek".

"Now..." I said, I typed the password in, in Greek. Then I hit the lone button on the site, a little Greek Eta. Then the page loaded.

"This is something Annabeth showed me. That computer she has, Dadealus's right? Well, he went digital so he put together a big database of monsters and people in the Olympic world. This will help us find out about Pyrrhos." I grinned. Katie and Eric leaned in to get a better look at the screen.

It was a simple white screen (again) with a big gold Eta on it, and a bunch of flags under that. I hit the American one, for English. A little search bar pulled up.

"Pyrrhos" I typed. A new page, simple black text and white background, pulled up. It was a very short entry. I read aloud.

_"Pyrrhos: Rather nasty fire deity, giant. Minor attempts at gaining power shut down by heroes or gods. Can throw and spit fire. Very powerful when angry. Prefers to work with minions instead of getting his own hands dirty. Strengths- Fire, hot temperatures. Weaknesses- Water, cold temperatures. Rather short temper, rage is dangerous. _

"Oh gods..." Katie said, rubbing her forehead.

"Let's go." I said curtly, deleting the history and shutting off the computer. We were silent on the way back.

* * *

"Okay. We have three days." Eric said, sitting on his bedroll and whittling a stick with his knife.

"Three days." Katie repeated monotonously.

"Don't worry guys, I'll-I'll think of a plan." I yawned and lay down my on bedroll. I'd sleep on it. Sleep. Yep.

* * *

"Ryan, Ryan, wake up." Someone was gently shaking my shoulders. I cracked open my eyes to see Katie leaning over me. Her reddish hair was falling over her shoulders and tickling my face. I smiled sleepily. "You awake?" she asked. I half-sat up.

My brain came back to the past days events..._what you have already found...evil, eternal fire...satyrs...Pyrrhos...killer of our kind...rather nasty fire deity...weaknesses- water..."Ryan, what kind is this?"_

I sat up quickly.

"I have a plan." I said all of a sudden. Eric and Katie's heads both shot up. I got up and began to pace.

"It's like this. I though it up last night. Katie, do you still have those cactuses?"

"Yeah..." she said slowly, picking up her bag. She pulled the makeshift sweater-sack from it and handed it to me. I sat down on the tree stump and unwrapped it. Inside were a few of the cactuses, now shriveled and dry. Gingerly, I picked up the reddish one.

"California barrel Cactus." I said, looking at it.

"Get on with it...?" Eric asked. I shook my head and held it up.

"This. This is the answer. So, remember what we saw first when we came to the camp? We saw the satyrs preparing food for Pyrrhos. My plan? Sneak a few of these in, he eats them, the water makes him weak, then we take him out."

Katie bit her lip.

"What about the _gigantes?_" she asked.

"They just follow their leader. I'm convinced when he dies, who ever kills him is automatically the leader. So we just command them to go back to their spots and go back to sleep." I sat back and let them think about that.

"Great plan, but how are we going to sneak these in?" Eric said, crossing his arms.

"I hadn't gotten to that part. I fell asleep." I admitted sheepishly.

"Well, I can see we have two options. Sneak in or disguise our selves as satyrs." He sighed.

"Option 2 is nixed. How in the world would we do that?" Katie piped in.

"Good point. Let's think on it." I said, scratching my head. _C'mon Ryan, Athena always has a plan..._

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So I sat there, trying to think of options while Eric walked around aimlessly and Katie practiced making the cactus.

"Gods!" she said, frustrated. "This is impossible!"

"Keep trying." I said, not looking up. "You're the only one here who can pull plants out of the wazoo." She threw her hands up in the air and flopped down in the grass, shutting her eyes. I did the same, trying to clear my head. We sat like this for a while, in silence, except Eric's footfalls.

I was just thinking about home when I heard a simultaneous scream, Katie's, and Eric's voice crying out. I shot up into a sitting position. Katie scrambled behind the tree stump with me. She put a hand on her chest.

"My gods... I though I just saw..." she shook her head. I couldn't see Eric.

"Saw what?" I said, completely confused. I heard a loud swear word come from around the trees.

"I though I saw..." she swallowed, then screamed. I looked in the direction she was looking, and suppressed a scream myself. Because standing on the far side of the clearing, was not Eric, but a satyr.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I said loudly, and we jumped to our feet. Katie grabbed my arm. The satyr fell over with an indignant "Tartarus!" We stood stock-still.

"Who are you and where's Eric?" Katie demanded.

"What did you see?" I asked, confused again.

"I though I saw Eric, Eric turning into _that!" _she pointed at the satyr who was in the process of getting up again.

"Turning into it? Uh... are you sure?" I asked in disbelief.

"Very sure! Since it happened to me!" the satyr yelled, now up again. Katie screamed, and he fell over again, with an angry bleat.

"Katie! Quit it!" he yelled. I looked at him sideways.

"... Eric?" I asked, shocked.

"What?" he groaned, trying to get up. I tugged Katie along with me as I went to investigate. "Help me up, Ryan." he said. I took his arm and pulled him up.

"You're really a satyr!" I bawled.

"Yeah. What'd you think I was? A kitten?" The satyr looked like a typical one does, furry goat legs, hooves, bare chest, curly dark hair and little horns. But I could see Eric's face below the fuzzy face and curly hair. Same eyes, same _attitude. _

"What the Hades just happened?" Katie asked, pulling Eric-satyrs wrist like trying to tell if it was really his.

"I was just thinking about our plan and wishing for a solution, and POW! Here I am as a goat man!" he said angrily. "I can't even walk!" he stumbled a little, and made it to the tree sump where he sat.

"Can you change back into yourself?" I asked, worried.

"Lemme try." He closed his eyes hard. After a minute or two, gold light circled around him and next thing I knew, Eric the human was sitting back on the stump. He felt his chest and legs like making sure they were all there.

"Woah." He felt his head. "Okay, no horns, I'm good."

"I think we must have been blessed by the gods." I said, looking up to the sky.

"Yeah." Katie said, watching Eric. He shut his eyes and turned into a satyr again. Eric got up and stumbled around.

"Well, the good news is our little quest problem is solved." He said, meeting my eyes with a sly smile.

**:D**


	13. Chapter 13

**Ah here it is, chapter thirteen. Written and re-written _three times,_ and changed completely every time. **

**IMPORTANT- Please read! - **** This is a short, 520 word prelude to what will be the start of the final fight. Expect it soon! I do not own PJO. **

**Lucky thirteen eh...?**

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_Chapter 13-_ Always a hero 

"This is harder than, it looks, okay? Eric said, getting back up. I laughed. He was trying to walk as a satyr. It was proving hard. He tugged on his tee shirt. "Why do I have the urge to eat this?" He shook his head, sending his tiny curls flying.

"Join the club." Katie said vaguely, feeling the ground with her hands. She shook her head. "I mean about this being hard, not eating shirts- whatever."

Eric sighed and walked foreword. I sat down on the grass, cross-legged and watched the clouds pass by.

The next day, I was frantic and frustrated.

"Yes!" Katie said. I looked over, seeing a reddish little fat cactus sitting out of place in the grass. I grinned and turned back to my flat dirt spot where I was attempting to draw out a plan, to no avail.

"Athena always has a plan..." I muttered, pounding my temples violently. Eric scooted over to me, glancing at the blank dirt in front of me.

"No plan yet?" he asked. I didn't look up, and tried to ignore the smirking smile that I knew was on his face in front of me.

"No, _Eric." _I said, looking up with a purposely-blank expression. "Got that walking down yet?"

"Yep." He said, rising from his crouching position and taking a deep breath, arms at his side. Golden light circled him like a cocoon, and when it was gone, there was a satyr standing there, dressed in the same dark green tee shirt he wore when he morphed last. "Watch me." He grinned. I folded my arms expectantly.

He walked around the clearing first, warming up, then began to skip around.

"Don't get too cocky." Katie said, sending a grin his way.

"Well, excuse-" he morphed back. "Me. Ah, feels good not to be so... furry." He felt his head, as was his habit, just to make sure no horns were left behind.

I turned back to my flat dirt, holding my stick in anticipation of a plan that would never come.

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That night, I couldn't sleep. The plan, we had one. It was a good one, thanks to yours truly. I spent all day perfecting it. My watch alarm was set and all that. We were all packed. I just _needed to sleep!_

I clicked on the light for my watch face. 11:15.

"Sleep, Ryan. You need it." whispered a voice. It startled me. I noticed Katie's face, the outline of her face illuminated in pale moonlight, her warm brown eyes open. Her body was turned to mine.

"Sorry." I muttered.

"Don't apologize." She smiled. "Just breathe and imagine nothing about tomorrow. You worry too, much, hero."

"Hero..." I mused in a breath. "We'll see tomorrow."

"You'll always be a hero to me. Sleep now..." she shut her eyes. I rolled over silently. Her words guided me to the soft realm to the sleeping. I was a hero, and nothing would deter me.

**Nothing. So here goes the fight, the affray, the battle, the brawl.. whatever you want to call it ;)...**


	14. Chapter 14

**Haha, yes, I'm still alive! I was just really busy, real sorry about the delay. So here's chapter 14, only 800 words... sorry. Eh. I'm the author, I get to decide how many words it is! MUAHAHAHA! **

***ahem* Anyway, about the whole Pan speculation... hmmm should I tell you? Not sure...**

**OKAY YOU GOT ME. No, it's not Pan! I love keeping you guys in suspense! Keep'a guessing! So here it is- please R&R!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. **

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_Chapter 14- Waiting for us_

_Final Fight Part I_

_Eric's POV..._

"Back to the kitchen for you!" Pyrrhos snarled. I tried not to show how_ freaking' terrified_ I was as the gigantes led me by the shoulder to the table where the food was made. They were HUGE. Calm, calm.

The "kitchen" was really a big table. The satyrs at it looked dishelved and skinny, sad and unemotional. 10 or so, all doing different things on the huge round table. Some were washing things in a metal tub. Some polishing objects. A few were fixing up a map with a pretty big burn hole in it. They all glanced at me out of the corners of their eyes, but didn't fully look at me.

"Who are you, newcomer?" asked a gruff, big satyr. I guessed he was the leader. I scooted closer to him. He handed me a rag and a big brass tunic clip to polish. I got at it.

"My name is Eric." I whispered, wishing I had my knife on me. Giants were milling all around, but none of the others seemed surprised by it. I scratched my furry leg. "I'm... new." He didn't question it. "Invasion today, right?"

"Shh!" he said, elbowing me. "Don't say that out loud! And yes, the you-know-what is today." I blinked and talked next so my mouth barely opened.

"I... am... from... the... _resistance._" I breathed, fearing my every word would be heard. I just rubbed the brass clip harder. The older satyr still didn't look up.

"Oh really?

"Yes!" I hissed, annoyed he didn't believe me. I decided to leave out the part about me really being a halfblood. "We have a plan as well." My eyes shot around before saying anything else.

"In my satchel... I have our tool. When... does _he _take his next meal?" The still-nameless satyr glanced at the sky. "In about an hour. We can't speak of this any longer. The meal preparations begin in about twenty minutes. Hold out until then. I'm Eldon, by the way." He moved away before glancing at me with old gray eyes again. I took a few deep breaths and touched my satchel before returning to my polishing. It was a miracle Pyrrhos didn't see it. His gigantes were probably blocking me with their... hugeness.

I looked up briefly to see Eldon muttering to a satyr at his right who glanced up at me; eyes alight and hard smile on. I could tell word was going to go through all the satyrs. My mind slid back to Katie and Ryan, standing just beyond the walls. Waiting, watching for me to do my job right. I just hoped I could.

My arms trembled. Me and four other satyrs carried the tray above our heads. And it wasn't a light tray! My little cactuses sat on a plate. There were a lot of other unusual foods up there so maybe it wouldn't stick out? I was scared out of my whits.

Ryan said the cactuses would weaken him a lot. I didn't pretend to know anything about... anything he babbled on about. Some times I think Ryan is _too _smart. Ugh, back to earth, Eric.

Pyrrhos sat on his throne, resting back with eyes closed. He looked huger and _way scarier_ up close. He was huge! And his head was on fire with small orange flames. We placed the tray on a side table, which we had to climb up ladders and pass the tray up just to reach it. The satyrs around me shook too, nervously glancing up at the try. I shook in my fur, wishing I had my own freaking' legs back.

_Ryan's POV..._

Katie and me crouched next to the wall. I knew Pyrrhos didn't take his food for another 20 minutes, according to my observations of this place.

"Ugh, I wish I knew how he was doing." She whispered. We couldn't see much from this specific vantage point. It was higher up the hill.

"I know." I replied, biting my lip anxiously. The sword in my hand slid around in my sweaty palm. I wiped it on my pants.

There was no smoke today, but I felt tenseness in the air. Like the earth itself knew something was going to happen. A little breeze blew some ash into the air, reminding me of our mission.

I turned back a little and saw Katie watching the scene below us. It was a still day, the burnt, ashen trees sitting as if waiting for liberation from some sort of force. I felt like the forest was _waiting_ for this to end. And I knew it was waiting for us.

Subconsciously, I took Katie's hand. Neither of us looked up. We just breathed and held in the warmth of one another. It was all we had.


	15. Chapter 15

**Here it is! Sorry for the intense delay, I've been so busy!  
Anyway, Melikecake... good guess. But no! I'll reveal it in due time, don't you worry! **

**Here's chapter 15. It took me soo long cuz I stink at fight scenes. Hope you enjoy it though. **

**And no, this is not the last Final Fight chapter. And yes, there will be a few more chapters, things to clear up, you know *nudgewink*...**

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_Chapter 15- _Time stops

_Final Fight Part II_

_Eric's POV..._

"Satyr!" Pyrrhos barked. I stepped foreword, sucking in all my courage.

"Yes, sire?" I asked, clearly and coolly.

"What is _this?_" he asked, pointing to the cactuses. I blinked but kept a steady tone.

"Exotic fire plant, sire. They are said to heat the inner fire. Eaten swallowed whole, sire." He watched me with narrowed eyes. My heart beat so hard against my chest I though he might be able to hear it.

"If it helps my inner fire." He concluded, tossing each cactus into his mouth and swallowing them promptly. He continued to eat with no other problems. I stepped back. The other satyrs' eyes shot to mine for a split second. I could almost see a glimmer of hope in each pair.

We waited until he was done and took the tray away. Ryan said the effects wouldn't kick in immediately. I was still worried. We continued with our activities without any talking, waiting, worrying... hoping.

"WHAT IS THIS?" Boomed Pyrrhos's voice. We satyrs whipped around, dropping our things. The gigantes turned their ugly heads.

He was down on his knees, clutching his throat. The giant's head flames were going wild. I almost jumped in the air with a premature "Yeah!" But no. I immediately scanned the walls, knowing Ryan was out there.

"TAR...TARUS!" He scratched out, getting to his feet, steam blowing from his nostrils and mouth. The whole camp stood still, the giants watching something I knew they were to stupid to understand. He stumbled to his throne and sat, his body shaking.

"SATYRS! I n-need m-my nectar..." he threw out, sounding like you do when you get back from the dentist, with numb lips. No one moved. Pyrrhos snarled and stood on shaky legs, throwing fire from his fists. He tried to move foreword, but a loud crunch threw his off. He whipped around. My heart leaped.

_Ryan's POV..._

"We've come to fight you!" I said loudly, trumping foreword to the shaking giant. I didn't know what to say and impromptu "Bring it!" just wasn't my style.

"Halfbloods, eh?" He said, standing a little steadier. We faced him a few yards away now. All the satyrs and giants watched, making me nervous.

"Yeah." I snarled. It came out more badass then intended. The giants moved foreword.

"Stay out of this!" Pyrrhos cried. "This is m-my fight!" He made it over to his throne and pulled a long, celestial bronze sword out of a sheath on the side. I gulped but held my sword out. Katie took a fighting stance.

The fiery giant took a step foreword, holding the sword across his chest. He scraped a finger against the blade, and blue-white flames blossomed up and down it. I saw Katie lift her arms over her head, causing vines to climb around Pyrrhos's feet. He stumbled foreword, his sword sailing inches from my face.

The fight began. Pyrrhos, though weak, was fast on his feet, and Katie's vines only held him momentarily. I noticed the giants lumbering back and restraining the satyrs, who were probably going to try and help us.

I felt the heat from his sword next to my neck. Ducking, I felt a jump in my stomach, my heart going a thousand miles an hour.

I stabbed foreword, missing badly. I had to roll out of the way of his next stroke, feeling the rough ground dig into my back.

_"Hey Eric!"_ said a voice in my head. It sounded slightly familiar.

_"He can't concentrate on us, doofus." _Corrected another, still familiar. _"Lemme just take him back..." _My momentary lapse had Pyrrhos over me, about to swing his sword in a particularly ugly way.

All of a sudden, time froze and the landscape around me melted away, to whiteness all around. I felt myself freeze up, unable to stray form my position.

"You forgot to release him!" said the first voice.

"Jeez, give me a break." The other answered defensively. I couldn't see what they were doing, but I felt my body unfreeze. I jumped up immediately, wondering what the hell was going on.

On my look around, I saw two people, the voices, seated at a small round outdoor table, with one free stool there.

"Come on, Eric!" said the voice again. I cautiously made my way to the table. And then, I realized who they were.

One boy was small and skinny, pale, dressed in nerdy attire and tick black glasses to match. The other was tall and equally skinny, with a _Warcraft_ t-shirt on. He rubbed his nose. I joined them at the table.

"Link! Rune! What are you doing here? Where... am I?" I shook my head. Link and Rune were my old gaming buddies; we used to play online all the time together.

"We're giving you a break from that fight." Rune said, tugging on his shirt. Link pushed up his glasses like a true geek.

"That Pyrrhos guy is like, a total quest boss! Only this is a real life quest!" he exclaimed. I smirked.

"If only it were that easy." I muttered. "So, where am I anyway?"

"Your own head. I guess." Link bit his lip. "It's... complicated." I took this as a que to not pursue the subject anymore.

"It's good to see you again, buddy." Rune patted my arm. "Where'd you get the tan, anyway?" I laughed, remembering that these guys saw me last before I had left for camp.

"A camp." I blinked and smiled.

"Anyway, we only have a few minute with you so we'll tell you this." Link clasped his hands together and looked at Rune. The boy cleared his throat.

"A sword slash or stab won't kill Pyrrhos. His body is too hot inside, the bronze will melt." Rune pushed up his glasses again.

"So what then? I can't kill him?" I panicked.

"Nope. There's a solution." Link added on. "Remember the prophecy? The last line?" Boy did I. I spent half my time pondering it.

"Hurry and douse before it's too late..." I muttered. "So I should..."

"Yep!" Rune proclaimed. "It's just like fighting the Ochre Serpent that time. You had to go run and grab the Spirit Crystal!"

"So how do I go grab it? It's in my backpack!"

"I think someone will come up with _something_." Link said, winking. My mouth formed an _O_ of understanding.

"We're almost out of time here so..." Rune looked down at his watch. "Go lie back down so we can send you back."

"Thanks guys." I said, getting up and moving to the ground. The two leaned over me.

"Remember, Pyrrhos has -100 water resistance!" Rune said, in the true spirit of the gamer. I smiled.

"Good luck." Link said. He raised his palms, and I felt myself go ridged. The white started melting away.

"Oh yeah! Roll left!" he added and gestured to the left. _What?_ I asked myself. _Oh, right._ I had just registered this as I felt the world come back and time restarted.

Pyrrhos roared, and I rolled left, just avoiding a sword to the throat. _C'mon distraction! _I thought, skirting the giant. Just as I was about to lunge again, I heard the deadly roar of an animal. A big cat, a mountain lion.

The huge cat sprung on the giants back, roaring in a very scary way. I leaned foreword and saw the animal on Pyrrhos's back. Its dark eyes showed a glint... they were Eric's! This was Eric! The cat and the giant began to fight roughly. I wasted no time and ran to my backpack.

I grabbed _it _and scampered back, holding my sword aloft. Pyrrhos threw out an arm, catching the Eric-mountain lion off guard and throwing him off. My eyes widened. Katie looked at him with pain in her eyes.

I faced him, not completely in balance, holding it in one hand and my sword in the other. Pyrrhos grabbed the front of my shirt and grabbed my face in a painful way, his hot fingers stinging me. I couldn't talk, as he was squeezing the sides of my face.

"I will end you, halfblood filth, and no one will _ever_ doubt me, Pyrrhos, Lord of the flame!" he said into my face. My eyes watered slightly from the pain of being held above the ground so high.

I could barely move, but mustered out my last energy in one dire move.

_"_Katie!" I yelled, muffled and strained, then I flung _it_ to her.

"Huh?" Pyrrhos said, looking around. And then, it came.

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**CLIFFHANGER! **


	16. Chapter 16

**Here is the long awaited chapter 16! In this chapter... ERIC GETS CLAIMED! I loved writing this! Ah, bliss. **

**And where have all my reviews gone? I only had one review for the last chapter. This makes me sad. Reviewers- I adore ye, I implore ye, don't ignore me!**

**Note- This is NOT the last chapter! I think there will be at least one more. Keep your eyes on this for the ending!**

**Disclaimer- I don't own PJO, I just own iHalfblood. PS- some swearing down below. **

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_Chapter 16- _Enjoy the ride

Steam clouded my vision. I looked down at Pyrrhos.

"Have fun in Tartarus." I spat. He howled, but his upper body was turning to gold dust. As his arms disappeared, I was dropped, falling twenty feet down. I felt a searing pain in my leg, and the last thing I saw was the gold dust flying away on the breeze before everything faded to black.

When I opened my eyes, I noticed I was lying on the ground. The camp was devoid of giants, but the satyrs were walking around. I looked up to see Eric's face over me.

"He's awake!" Eric said, grinning. I smiled, and heard the satyrs cheer. They rushed over. I felt someone (probably Katie) helping me sit up.

"We salute you, brave son of Athena." Said one, who was standing over us. "And you, gracious daughter of Demeter." He bowed, and stood again. "Oh, and you, young shape shifter. Eric. Watch your powers, son." The older satyr wagged a finger in Eric's direction.

"Thanks Eldon." Eric said, laughing a little. The satyrs all bowed once more.

"May this forest regrow in peace!" Eldon concluded and all the satyrs raised their arms to the heavens. They all played their pan flutes and danced their way out of the ruined camp.

I tried to raise my legs, but felt a searing pain in one ankle.

"_Shit._" I muttered.

"Oh gods." Katie said, laying me back down. "Eric, get some ambrosia. Eric moved towards Katie's pack. I saw _it,_ my water bottle, lying on the ground near me.

"You saved us, Katie." I muttered, grinning weakly.

"No. You did." She said, taking my hand and squeezing it. "How did you think of the water so quickly?"

"Athena always has a plan. Even if it's do-or-die. Plus," I smirked. "Pyrrhos has -100 water resistance." Katie looked at me curiously but didn't inquire further.

Eric came jogging over, holding a Zip Lock baggie full of ambrosia squares. Katie opened it and handed one to me.

"So where are the giants?" I asked before putting the square into my mouth. I felt energy lacing itself in my injuries.

"We did what you said. We told them to go sleep, back where they were."

"And they obeyed?"

"Yep." I grinned and stood up, feeling the pain leave my leg.

"Good. It's gone." I shook out my wrists and ankles. Katie let out a sigh of relief.

"Great, I though you were going to make the long hike back on a bad foot." She blinked and went over to where the backpacks were and started to gather her stuff.

I picked up my water bottle. It was a simple blue, wide mouth, loop top thing with the little ml. and oz. markers up the side. My name was written along the top in black Sharpie, fading slightly. I looked at it for a while before putting it away in my bag. It would always be a marker of this quest.

"Hey, you know what?" Eric said, putting his backpack back on the ground. "Let me try something." He shut his eyes like he was about to morph. The familiar gold light circled him and when I looked back, a huge mule deer buck stood there. He had huge antlers and Eric's dark eyes. He morphed back.

"C'mon. Jump on!" he said, before morphing back to buck form.

"He wants us to ride him?" Katie said, eyeing the deer unsurely. I sure didn't want to walk all the way, so I shrugged.

Minutes later we were sitting atop the huge Eric-buck with all of our things. I put my arms around its neck and held on tight.

"I don't know about this..." Katie said, looking down. Eric-buck turned its head towards me, and I swear it winked at me before leaping over the broken fence. Katie let out a yelp of surprise before grabbing my midsection.

He took off, practically flying through the woods, dodging ever tree. I let out a "Yeah!" as we jumped off a small hill and the Eric-buck soared for a minute.

"You mean you're actually enjoying this?" Katie hissed into my ear. I felt very aware of her arms around me, her body pressed up against my back.

"I might be." I said, grinning back at her.

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"I would like to congratulate the young heroes who have returned from a quest today!" Chiron said, standing in his centaur form at dinner. "Please rise!" We stood to applause and cheers. Annabeth grinned at me from the end of the table.

We had told our story to Chiron and word had gotten around camp as it usually does with these types of things. I was glad to be back.

I looked over to the unclaimed table and caught my breath. The camp grew silent. Eric looked up, and his eyes grew wide. Because over his head was a glowing violet symbol- two crossed torches. I had seen it before, in books and pictures. It was the symbol of the goddess of magic and crossroads- Hecate.

Some others from the unclaimed table began to cheer. A few people clapped Eric on the back, and the whole camp cheered once again. He had finally gotten claimed.

"Very well! Our first Hecate camper!" Chiron exclaimed. I clapped with the rest of them, feeling proud for my friend.

"Settle down already! It's enough of a pain to have to get another table in here." Mr. D called, annoyed until everyone grew a little quieter. Chattering started again through the pavilion.

I made eye contact with Katie, who smiled back at me. I looked at Eric then. He was grinning like crazy, and laughing along with his tablemates.

This was the perfect end to the quest. Life was going to be pretty good from now on, I though to myself, smiling once again

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**Still some left! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review! I beseech you!**


	17. Chapter 17

**I can't believe it's actually over. This is the story I've been nursing. It started on a whim, and grew into the first real story of my fan fiction career. **

**I'd like to thank- my reviews, you guys kept me afloat, my sister-beta, who gave me the _real_ con-crit, and to all the music who influenced this story. Coldplay, the Killers, Simple Plan, Green Day, Caitlin Crosby, The XX, Океан Ельзи, Victor Morozov, Smash Mouth, the Beatles, Queen, OK Go, my favorite band-Paramore, and everyone else I missed! Music is one of my biggest muses. Thanks to everyone who helped with this story.**

***Sniff* Well here it is. Thanks to Rick Riordan, who without knowing, started this all. **

**Please review if you haven't, or if you have! **

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_Chapter 17- _I was a teenage Halfblood

_ Katie's POV..._

I sat on the porch of the Athena cabin with Annabeth. It was after dinner and dark, the bonfire going in the distance, campers running around and relishing the last hour of the day. I zipped my sweater higher and hugged my knees.

"So." Annabeth said, smiling at me. "Tell me about the quest. You know-" she poked my knee. "Girl to girl."

"Well you know about it already!" I argued jokily.

"But not from your point of view!" she replied. I ran my tongue along my bottom teeth.

"Well, I sent us to the desert." I smirked, thinking I wouldn't try _those_ things any time soon. "Which turned out to be a good thing, I guess. Then we rode the Phoenix."

"How awesome was that?"

"Pretty scary, actually. It flies fast. And really... high." I paused. "Then Eric turned into a satyr. He didn't come out naked, thank gods." Annabeth put her head in between her knees, laughing.

"That reminds me of that time me and Percy were on Circe's isle. I was so freaking afraid he would be naked when he turned back from guinea pig form. Didn't happen..." she grinned into the distance, her golden curls spilling over her shoulder. I suddenly wished I could be as pretty as Annabeth.

"Pretty cool about Eric. I didn't even _think _of Hecate." I told her, rubbing my jeans.

"I did." Ryan said, coming out of the Athena. "It slipped my mind once but we were so busy I totally forgot about it." He blinked, smiling, and leaned up against the porch rail.

"Just where are you going?" Annabeth looked over at him.

"Taking a walk, I guess." He said, looking over at the forest like seeing more than dark trees there.

"Just be careful."

"Why are you worrying about me? I just got back from an oh-so-dangerous quest, right." He held out his arms in surrender.

"I'm your older sister. It's my job." She rolled her eyes, but I could see her smile.

"Okay then. Well, bye older sister. Night Katie." He said, looking at me once more with placid gray eyes before leaving.

"He needs a lot of time to think." I said, watching his retreating figure. "He stays up so late... just thinking sometimes." I cocked my head, wondering what went on in that Athena-born head.

"You watch him sleep?" Annabeth said, turning to me.

"No- I just notice things sometimes. You know." I was glad it was dark and she couldn't see me blush.

"Oh. I get it." She looked at me knowingly.

"Don't draw any conclusions, Annabeth Chase!" I crossed my arms over my chest. "We're just friends!"

"Not that he wants to keep it that way." She mumbled, rubbing her upper lip.

"What?"

"Oh gods, Katie. I'm not a mind reader, but I can see how he looks at you." She rolled her eyes.

"Me?" I looked at a lock of my own hair like it was different that the other million times I see it a day. Annabeth smiled and stretched her arms.

"I think my work here is done." She said, yawning. "I'm going to find Percy. G'night." _Oh, so you can have a nice good night make-out._ I though to myself.

She left. I sat on the porch for a while, just thinking. _Like Ryan does so often..._

_ Ryan's POV..._

I was walking from my cabin, the next afternoon, when I saw Eric heading back from the arena.

"Hey Ryan! Meet me in my cabin! I just gotta shower up and stuff first." He said when we met.

"Sure." I said, grinning. I headed to his cabin.

It was made of slabs of the sort of very dark violet, almost black rock. There were two identical stone statues of a large dog, a Dalmatian, flagging the ornate doorway. Two crossed torches sat above the door, like the owl in my cabin. I stepped inside. It was a regular run of the mil cabin, beds and two big tables. There was a big window framed by blue curtains on the back wall, showing a view directly into the trees, up the creek.

"Wow." I whispered, touching one of the huge beautiful constellation charts on the wall, where the cosmos was a beautiful navy and the silver stars actually seeming to blink, like diamonds. Ancient Greek symbols were written in gold. There were a few scrolls lined up on the table.

I leaned against one of the tables. Eric's bunk was recognizable as the only one, as it was unmade and there was a small mess of clothes and things around it. It seemed like this cabin had just been sitting and waiting for him to come. I heard footsteps come into the cabin.

"Oh. Hey Ryan." Katie said, brushing her hair behind her ear. It slid foreword again. "Eric said-"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Nice cabin, huh?" She nodded, smiling a brilliant smile and looking out the window. "So what were you and Annabeth talking about last night?"

She scratched her nose and came to rest against the table, next to me.

"Oh, you know, stuff. The quest."

"What did she say about me?" I groaned. She gave me a look.

"Nothing!" She said, slightly defensive. She slid a curtain of reddish hair between us.

"You're lying..." I said, unknowingly leaning in. Her hair smelled like honeysuckle. She tossed her head, but stopped when she noticed how close our faces were. We just stood there; I just stood there like an idiot!

"Sorry." I mumbled, straightening up a little. Why do I always become this mess around her? Curse my inexperience with girls. I can take a computer apart and rebuild again, but I can't say what I mean to _a certain_ girl.

"It's okay." She murmured. I looked into her eyes, soft and brown, with hazel rings like the inside of an aged tree. A few little freckles sat on her nose and under her eyes. Her lips- man, where do I start? Perfect, not too thin, not too full, a beautiful natural rosy pink.

If I could just... no. Why was I getting so poetic? Because I had no choice. Just like I had no choice but to fall in love with her. I looked away when I noticed blush creeping up her face.

"Sorry. I stare too much." I said, staring at the ceiling. I turned back, some sort of floodwall breaking.

"Do you think..." she said quietly. "Do you think this was meant to happen?"

"What was meant to happen?"

"This." We stared at each other again. And despite whatever social rules there were, our lips were suddenly on each other's. Kissing.

Every sense I had was maximized tenfold. She smelled like flowers. She put her arms around my neck, and I slid my arms around her waist.

Her lips felt like I had imagined, very soft and warm. In all my life, I would never have imagined this. _Thanks, Aphrodite. _I though to myself.

"Sorry I took awhile, the line was- WOAH!" I heard Eric's voice and his feet coming in, then a clatter of bronze. We came apart and started to laugh. Eric came into view, holding a hand over his eyes.

"I did not need to see that, I did not need to see that... are you guys done?"

"Grow up, Eric." Kate laughed. I grinned. Eric uncovered his eyes and picked up his stuff.

"Now that that's over..." He held up his hands like in surrender. "How do you like my cabin?"

Katie untangled herself from me and walked over to the big window. The sky was turning pinks and gold's over the trees, glistening off the creek. She sat on the floor. Eric and I joined her.

"The prophecy was fulfilled." I said. They looked at me. "We traveled to a home place. We used things learned and known. We grew and grew things, and of course, we learned our fate." Eric's dark eyes glistened.

I looked out the window again, thinking of my life since that faithful day I had _actually listened_ to my step mom. Thanks, Michelle. And I finally found a girl, in your words.

Was I a normal teenager as I knew she and my dad wanted? No. Far from it. I wasn't normal, not a normal kid with normal friends. I looked over at them. They watched me with smiles.

I was a halfblood, with halfblood friends. It was all I wanted to be.

_Fin._

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_**Wow, I can't believe it's over... Do you love it? Please, everyone, review! And watch my profile for new stories! Hopefully I'll see you again in the reviews ;)**


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